Elysium
by Adreus
Summary: hiatus — Post 5D's, our retired protagonists share an apartment. And wreak havoc. What else is new? —5DX(al)
1. Acceleration!

**Notes: **_Elysium_, or the final resting places of the souls of the heroic and the virtuous in Greek Mythology. Basically, the idea behind this is that post 5D's, our retired protagonists inhabit a living space together, and, of course, antics ensue.

This will feature: a plethora of ships, both het and slash; a whole lot of metafiction; completely unrelated one shots that probably won't be chronological, either.

**acceleration!** : ...and we head off!

* * *

><p><em>acceleration!<em>

* * *

><p>Yusei slouches back into the black leather sofa and closes his eyes, relaxing for a moment. It's so… quiet here, without Jack or Crow or Aki or Bruno or the twins. He isn't sure if he's entirely okay with the sudden silence, but… he has to admit, it's nice, and yeah, he could get used to it.<p>

"Hey, planetary particle, you there?"

…Well, okay, he could get used to _most _of it. Judai is something he doesn't think he'll ever be able to adjust properly to.

Yusei grunts, refusing to open his eyes. It's nice on the sofa; the entire place is nice, actually, and now Yusei gets to stay there permanently, too. 5D's is over; he graduated as a protagonist and now he can retire and live at one of the best apartments the studio has to offer, on the same floor as Yugi and Judai and even Atem.

Of course, having moved in with the inseparable Yugi and Atem and the uncontainable Judai, in the last few days Yusei saw a lot of leather and puzzleshipping, and, well—

"Yu~se~i!"

—A lot of Judai, who's apparently spent the last few years bored out of his mind.

Yusei opens his eyes to find his vision completely blocked by Judai's face, up close and personal. He blinks, hesitates a moment, but then lets it pass. "Yes?"

Now that he has Yusei's attention, Judai grins and draws back, holding up some cards in his hand to show Yusei. "How about a duel?" he asks, chipper, and reminds him that they never actually had a proper duel – in fact, Judai's barely even seen Yusei's deck.

Yusei's not just a little tired; he's spent all day moving his things from the run down garage he'd shared with Team 5D's upstairs and into his room, and had only just gotten back from plugging in his computers and setting up his D-Wheel when Judai attacked him. What he really wants to do is lie down and get some decent sleep on this obscenely comfortable leather sofa, but he can't turn down a duel – especially not one from Judai, since it's terribly obvious in the kid's—(actually, can Yusei even call him that, since Judai is technically older?)—big brown eyes that he's been dying to duel Yusei since the day the latter entered the business.

"Yeah, alright," says Yusei, getting up and suppressing a yawn, but Judai notices and frowns.

"You're tired," he says.

"I'm tired," Yusei agrees, and he takes out his deck, shuffles it idly as he looks around the room, a small smirk on his face. "Are we playing table-top traditionally? Maybe just standing up? Or"—he glances at the coffee table – which is less a table and more of a collection of Atem's old candy wrappers that they're all too lazy to throw out – where an unopened gift box reads _From Yuma_—"do you want to try out Yuma's presents?"

Judai crosses his arms and scowls. "Yusei, I'm not gonna duel you if you won't give it your all." His lips tilt upward a bit – "'Cause then when I win, you'll just say you were tired."

Yusei laughs. Judai's caught off guard – he's heard Yusei laugh maybe once or twice, _ever_, which is rare enough to make Judai think that something's definitely wrong.

"…Okay, never mind, Yusei, go to bed," says Judai, and he snatches a pillow from one sofa and sets it on the one Yusei'd been sitting on before. "I'll leave you alone, and we can duel when you're more awake."

Yusei's smirk grows as he puts his deck back into its case and lies down. "One condition, Judai," he says, laughing a little more, and Judai thinks this is bad, this is really bad and out of character and a side of Yusei he's never seen before, oh man it's like Atem all over again—

"What?" he asks.

"A riding duel," Yusei says, and he conks out.

Judai slowly grins.


	2. Addiction

**addiction** Yusei's addicted to milk, sure, but Judai's easier to blame everything on.

* * *

><p><em>addiction<em>

* * *

><p>Judai spills soda on Atem's favorite couch. It isn't bad at first, since it's leather, but Judai panics anyway. He sets the can down on the table and tries to soak up the sticky pool of liquid with his shirt as fast as he can because the pharaoh's gonna be home soon and he just has this way of <em>knowing <em>whenever Judai's done something wrong, and Judai really doesn't like it when Atem gets angry – especially when Yugi isn't home, oh man.

So Judai's already on edge and jumpy when Yusei's door opens and shuts, not exactly a slam but not a delicate baby either, and Judai jumps about a foot back and rams into the table. The soda can tips over and spills some more on the cards scattered around the table, mercifully misses Atem's important candy wrappers, runs all the way down to the corner as Judai watches in horror, and then—

"No!"

—It dumps the rest of its contents all over Atem's fine silk carpet.

Judai screams. Oh _man, _Atem really needs to stop setting out the fancy furniture and Judai really needs to stop destroying it, and that was probably another one-of-a-kind present that Mana made for his birthday and oh sweet Elemental Heroes, "_Crap_."

"…Judai?" asks Yusei, who's appeared in the room, nonplussed, having heard the yells and the screams that followed. He has his helmet tucked under one arm and a glass of milk held in the other, and he has a milk mustache, but even that doesn't distract Judai. He's too busy gaping at the spill, wide-eyed, as it stains the carpet and, bless him, are those _tears _glistening in Judai's eyes?

"…Judai, you okay?" Yusei tries again, but there's no response. The boy's stuck that way and not even the sticky mess that is his cards on the table can take him out of the shock he's stuck in – the image of Atem's face when he finds out, Yugi holding him back with a sheepish apology written all over his face.

_Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap_

Judai lets out a low whimper.

Yusei shrugs, wipes off his mouth with his sleeve, and heads out.

* * *

><p>Moments after Yusei leaves, Atem returns. He's livid and proclaims that he's had it, and as Judai hangs his head and treks down to the dry cleaners on the first floor, he can swear he catches a pair of dark purple eyes and some black-and-orange hair leaning against the ventilation shaft just beside the stairwell to their floor; he can swear he hears Yusei laugh.<p>

* * *

><p>Yugi gets home sometime around seven and finds the apartment dark and possibly abandoned, but the keys hanging around the door say otherwise. He switches on the light and is met with a vision of the cleanest he's ever seen the place, and at first he thinks Atem must've called the janitor or something, but then he notices the candy wrappers on the table still untouched (the pharaoh says that he's trying to win something, but first he needs to collect ninety-nine of them), and so decides it must've been Atem himself.<p>

Which is strange, because although he's neater than Judai and Yusei, Atem is not one to clean up after them.

"I'm home!" calls Yugi into the hall, but there's no response. "…Um, anyone here?"

There's something that sounds vaguely like a bird being strangled and some glass breaking.

Yugi flinches.

Silence.

Then: "Over here, Aibou!"

Yugi sighs and follows the voice's direction into the kitchen, where he finds Judai and Atem seated at the table, an empty can of soda in the center, and Yusei leaning against the counter, a carton of milk in his hand like a glass. Yusei's face is contorted in amusement in Judai's general direction, Judai's glaring in the can's general direction, and Atem looks like he did back before Yugi properly know him: ready to kick someone's ass and push a knife through some money on the back of his hand.

Yugi, the current voice of reason in their four man band (they switch the position around a lot), sighs again and smiles a little half-heartedly. He looks from Yusei to Atem to Judai and then back around again, before settling on Atem, unsure if he really wants to hear the answer to his question: "…What's going on?"

"Judai ruined my carpet," supplies Atem, nodding in the offender's direction. "And our new couch."

Yugi looks at Judai, wincing. "Already?"

"Sorry," Judai murmurs, looking apologetic and shrugging his shoulders. Yusei snorts; he wasn't aware that this happened often, but he's not surprised, either.

"I'm banning soda, Aibou," says Atem, retrieving Yugi's attention, and he leans back in his chair, crosses his arms behind him to cushion his head. "I think we've had enough incidents with Judai as it is, and frankly, that much caffeine isn't good for his growing teenage body, anyway." Atem smiles, one of those strange little things that always reminds them that he hasn't always been _entirely _good, that there's still a little darkness inside him and he does enjoy it.

"_What_?" exclaims Judai, standing up and pounding the table with his fists, because, yeah, okay, he has an addiction and that's probably bad, but _banning it_? It's not like he's the only one who drinks it, and besides – "Hey, come on, you can't put _silk carpets _in the lounge and not expect them to get messed up!"

Yugi laughs nervously and puts his hands up in the air, tries to negotiate a compromise, but it's fruitless; Atem is stubborn and Judai's arguments are loud and it's fairly obvious this is only going to end in one direction, and that's –

"I challenge you to a duel!"

Atem laughs. "Challenge accepted."

* * *

><p>Judai loses.<p>

Atem hauls all of the soda into the trash can.

Yugi tries very hard not to introduce his face to his palm.

Yusei laughs.


	3. Boy Band

**boy band** : For the benefit of all those unaware of where this idea comes from: the Japanese voice actors of these three protagonists are all part of boy bands. YES.

I wonder if it's painfully obvious that I've only played Guitar Hero once in my life.

* * *

><p><em>boy band<em>

* * *

><p>Anzu plays games like Rockband and Dance Dance Revolution, and oh, man, she's really good at them, so whenever Yugi goes to her place or to the arcade with her, he's seized with the need to play some music or rhythm based game. The boys <em>do <em>own several versions of several games, but they only play them when they're in the mood — something which doesn't happen all that often.

As it so happens, however, presently Yugi is in one of those moods. He cranks out his streak on the guitar—one of the cool custom ones that was a present from Anzu's brother—and he goes for the high score on Atem's best song. He beats his own score, which is pretty good, but it barely surpasses Judai's so there's probably no way it'll reach Atem's. And he's right: he screws up halfway between _there's no way I'll get this_ and _OHMYGOD, LOOK AT THAT STREAK_ and then sighs, drops the guitar on the couch and flops down next to it dejectedly, sighing as the song ends.

Yugi looks from the TV to his hands to the TV again, wondering if he should bother trying again right away. He sighs again, gets up, and heads to the kitchen for some refreshments, which totally doesn't translate to "comfort food."

He finds Yusei there, drinking milk as always, because the guy runs off the stuff apparently; he's sitting at the table with his laptop out, typing away a storm with one hand into some program that Yugi won't be able to understand if he tries.

"Beat his score?" asks Yusei, eyes flickering up from the screen. He's well aware of Yugi's goal: Yugi's been at it for about an hour now, and playing a single song that many times simply shouldn't be allowed, because now Yusei has it in his head and he's going to be singing it all week long at the most inconvenient of times.

Yugi shakes his head and opens a cabinet, takes out a bag of chips. "No," he says, pulling it open, and whoa, look at that, someone put some chips in his bag of air. He stuffs some into his mouth and grabs a bottle of water from the fridge, then sits down at the table next to Yusei. Swallowing, he says, "I think he's a musical god or something."

Yusei raises an eyebrow and takes a few chips. "You can do it," he says, pressing some more keys, and Yugi swears he's just hitting random buttons and making random sounds. "You're the King of Games, aren't you?"

Yugi smiles sheepishly, because technically the Millennium Puzzle's ability was to alter reality as needed, so he might not _really _be the King of Games… but then again, he did defeat the pharaoh that one time, and of course Judai challenged him—and the show _is _called Yu-Gi-Oh, and he's the absolute star of it, so… so—

Yugi hangs his head.

"…It can't be that hard," says Yusei, a little bewildered. A beat, and then: "Maybe a break will set you right. You've played it so many times you can probably hit the keys right with your eyes closed by now."

"…Sorry," says Yugi, flushing. "It must be getting annoying."

"No," Yusei responds, "It'll be in my head all week, sure, but it's not that bad. And someone that isn't Judai needs to beat Atem's score before he holds all the records in the house."

"Yeah?" ask Yugi, laughing, but he's not so content with the fate of the world being on his shoulders again, so he suggests: "Then why don't you give it a try?"

Yusei shrugs, closes his laptop, gets up, and leads the way.

* * *

><p>And then he breaks his fingers.<p>

"_Ow_," complains Yusei, and he drops the controller and slumps into the couch, staring at his fingers like he's never seen them before. He slides off his gloves – something Yugi doesn't think he's ever seen before, the guy probably sleeps with them on – and massages his thumbs before proceeding to his announcement: "That controller is _the enemy_."

Yugi bites his lower lip and scrolls through the scores. Yusei's doesn't even show up because it's the worst one in the history of the song, which is saying something considering that Yuma's scores are there.

"I'm never playing this game again," Yusei decides.

"I don't understand how his hands work that fast," Yugi affirms. He restarts the song for the umpteenth time and Yusei moans as the song breaks in; it's nailed in the back of his head. He finds himself subconsciously singing along as Yugi gets a streak of fifty, breaks it, gets one of thirty, breaks it, and finally finishes with one hundred ten. Atem's longest is one hundred eleven.

Yugi starts getting frustrated, and lets out a sound somewhere between a cicada and a garbage disposer.

Yusei loops the chorus.

* * *

><p>Judai finds them like that half an hour later and laughs like a mad man, since he knows what it's like to try to beat the score on that song. He says he'll give his Winged Kuriboh to whomever can beat it, which isn't saying much because it's not about to happen anytime soon. Eventually Judai's pestering combined with Yusei's singing drives Yugi insane and he gives up, stomps out, and then comes back to try again. Judai laughs some more, plugs in the drum set, and tosses Yusei the microphone.<p>

Together they do better, but they still don't break the high score.

* * *

><p><em>Going fast makes me feel alive!<em>


	4. Joyride

**joyride** : I'm in your fanfics, teasing your starshipping.

* * *

><p><em>joyride<em>

* * *

><p>On a Saturday morning Judai sneaks into Yusei's room and steals his alarm clock, hides it in the closet across his room and then slips downstairs to the lowest levels of the building before anyone can notice. He heads into Team 5D's garage and nearly has a heart attack when he sees the shadow of a figure in the computer chair, but it's okay – Bruno's fast asleep and snoring. Judai guesses he fell asleep working on a new D-Wheel program late the night before.<p>

Judai tiptoes to Yusei's D-Wheel, hopes Bruno's a heavy sleeper, and grinning mischievously, sits down. He feels like Yusei and his grin spreads wider, and he wonders if anyone else has tried this before, or if he's the first person to try it out. Somehow, he can't see Yusei letting anyone else drive it.

Judai cackles a bit more, then stops and wipes his face clean of any emotion before dramatically drawing a card from the deck and proclaiming seriously: "Clustering hopes will become a new shining star. Become the path its light shines upon!"

And then he dissolves into more boyish giggles.

Bruno stirs a bit and Judai's heart stops for a second, but Bruno just shifts slightly and Judai can breathe again. Morning creeps farther towards noon and Judai figures he only has a few more minutes until Team 5D's will start arriving as they usually do on the weekends, and the only thing that's worse than being caught by Yusei himself is being caught by Jack or Aki, or both at the same time, because they'll make a big deal out of it and Jack will steal his ramen.

Judai should probably leave, but the trip down here seems too anticlimactic that way and besides, Yusei's D-Wheel is too ridiculously awesome _not _to try out. The coolest choice of action right now would be to put on some sunglasses and go for a ride, being caught be damned.

… Yusei did mention that he wants to play Judai in a riding duel…

Judai grins, takes it as permission, and, hey, what's one joyride for practice, anyway?

_Hey, _he thinks at all of Yusei's adoring fans who'll have his head for stealing their precious hero's ride or his attention or virginity (Judai doesn't know where those people come from, but they're frightening) or whatever, _my name is Yuki Judai and I've ridden Fudo Yusei's D-Wheel. How's that for innuendo?_

He settles in properly and puts his deck in the proper slot, goes without a helmet because who needs those anyway, and presses a button to open the garage door. Then he zooms out because he doesn't realize that the little-hand-press-thingy as he so aptly dubs it is an _accelerator_, and oh god, he nearly kills Yugi's grandfather in the process, something which is sadly not the first time he's narrowly avoided manslaughter.

"Sorry!" he calls back as he speeds away and hears in response something that sounds vaguely like "OH SHIT SOMEONE WAKE UP YUSEI HE NEEDS TO GET HERE RIGHT NOW."

Judai laughs nervously, gulps, and speeds up some more. He passes a few stores and people he recognizes that recognize him, and _damn, _riding fast on a motorcycle is fun with the wind in his hair and all that great stuff, but on second thought he probably should've brought that helmet because he's going to be in a lot more trouble than he originally planned for.

He swerves a lot and tries not to hit old ladies in the streets and screams like a girl, then turns into an empty alleyway to stop and calm his heartbeat. His eyes are wide and his face is pale, but _man_, that was awesome and he's definitely doing it again sometime even if he's totally going to lose to Yusei in that upcoming duel. How the hell does Yusei concentrate on the duel if he has to pay attention to the road, isn't that dangerous, and who's idea was the riding duel to begin with?

Judai thinks about that for a moment then shakes his head, since he doesn't have: soon the roads will be even more populated than they are now and it's probably best to get the D-Wheel back sooner than later, so he starts it up again, begins to accelerate a little, when—

"Duel mode. Auto-pilot. Stand-by."

Judai gulps, hears the other D-Wheeler approaching, hopes to god it isn't Jack Atlas, and—

—It's Yusei.

So Judai loses that duel, too.


	5. In My Day

**in my day ; **I like to think that if Kaiba existed in our world, he'd own Google by now. Therefore, KCorp is their Gmail.

Also this is dumb. ;;

* * *

><p><em>in my day<em>

* * *

><p>Whenever he hears some slowass typing and a few deep grunts from the kitchen Yusei knows to avoid it like the plague and sneak into or out of the apartment on the tips of his toes. The aforementioned sounds don't come often, but when they do that means Atem is on the computer, and Atem is so technologically inept that he doesn't know a tab from a window. The last time he found his way onto the internet, well… it's not a fun story to tell, in Yusei's opinion.<p>

What it comes down to is that Atem isn't very good at things related to the computer, and just after Yusei moved in, Judai felt the need to point out that their new roommate was a geek, and now whenever Atem needs help he's likely to ask Yusei for it. This shouldn't be a problem – Yusei's a helpful person, especially to his friends and he likes sharing his interests with others – but Atem is just. Not made. For technology. Yusei's tried to help him a few times so far, and two laptops and a Judai were injured in the process.

Plus, Atem has a habit of attempting to mingle with technology whenever Yusei's busy doing something else… but Yusei can't exactly say no.

Presently, Yusei's standing just beyond Atem's vision into the hallway with a bag of groceries, frozen in place because of the tell-tale typing. He can't go ahead because he'll be trapped, but he can't _not _go ahead because he has ice cream, and ice cream has this nasty tendency to melt when it's not in the freezer.

He closes his eyes, gulps, and gripping the bag tightly, walks in.

"Hey," he says in greeting, walking in and placing all the grocery items in their proper place – ice cream in the freezer, milk in his mouth, already ripped open Duel Monsters wrappers in their collection (they plan on doing _something _with them – they're just not quite sure what, yet). Atem's response to his greeting is a grunt and a nod as he squints at Yugi's tiny monitor (he has a mini, which makes Yusei's look like a monster truck in comparison). Yusei catches a corner of the screen to see that he's working on an email account – and god _damn_, he's using something that isn't KCorp.

Yusei twitches a little inside—because oh god, how do you _not _use KCorp?—but he doesn't say anything, because he's gotta get downstairs soon – Team 5D's is probably waiting for him there, and if he intervenes with Atem's affairs he'll probably end up finding three freshly downloaded Trojans and a worm on Yugi's laptop. Yusei puts the carton of milk in the fridge, wipes his mouth, and tries to make his exit, when—

"Yusei? Can you help me with something?"

—That happens.

A flinch.

"Yeah?" say Yusei against his better judgment, "What is it?"

Yusei doesn't move from his spot, in hopes that this time it'll just be a quick one. It's happened in the past; sometimes he's lucky and Atem just wants to know what a briefcase does, but other times it gets ridiculously complicated and Yusei loses track of the entire day. He's not upset at Atem for any of it, of course, and he's glad to help, but Atem usually doesn't learn anything useful, anyway, or at least remember it. He tends to spend his time on the computer doing silly things of absolutely no value in Yusei's eyes.

Introducing Atem to Nyan Cat (Yusei didn't ask how Atem even _knew _about that, but he does recall Atem mentioning something about Yami Bakura) was not one of Yusei's most productive evenings.

Fortunately, today's venture with Atem isn't so mind numbing.

"Set said I should set up an email account," Atem says, motioning Yusei over. He doesn't expand until Yusei walks over and stands behind him, one hand on the kitchen chair and the other near the mouse, so he can take it from Atem the moment it's necessary and guide him through the setup. It's a position he finds himself with Bruno a lot, but with Bruno it's not nearly so awkward, since with Bruno Yusei's not teaching a three thousand-year-old man how to properly surf the web.

Yusei sees the provider again, his hand is on the mouse and on the back button in a second, onto KCorp in the next.

"…I just searched the word 'email' and chose the second option that came up since Kaiba's name is in the first one," supplies Atem, who's curious if he screwed up big time since Yusei's so silent.

Yusei smirks at that; he remembers that Kaiba is Atem's equivalent to his own Jack, and seriously wonders if he'd ever be able to use _satellitesshootingstar at atlas dot net_. Probably not.

"I understand why you did that," says Yusei, drawing back, "but KCorp's the best. I don't think I'd be able to live with you if you chose something other than that." Atem nods – Yusei's the expert, right? – and leans forward, squints at the screen, begins filling in the form that pops up when he wants to register for an account. It asks for his name and other info, and Atem types it in. First as atEm, then as ATEEEM, and then as aaaaaaaT3m. Yusei ends up taking the keyboard for that, too. Then he draws back, which is probably not a good idea because Atem doesn't know what the tab key is or what it does, and it takes them about ten painfully slow minutes to fill out the rest of the form, except for the handle.

"What do you want it to be?" asks Yusei, who's pulled over the other chair and texted Bruno that he'd be a while.

"Hmm," says Atem, and nothing else, because he honestly has no idea. "…I don't know. What's Yugi's?"

"I think it's just his name," says Yusei after a moment, since he doesn't really remember. He doesn't email Yugi all that often; actually, he only remembers doing it once at all, back when he was the new protagonist and he'd emailed Yugi and Judai about how he'd do his best and, man, he was such a kid back then. "Mutou Yugi at KCorp."

"I'll do that, too, then," says Atem confidently, and he types in just his name – A, T, E, M. The screen flashes red. He looks to Yusei for an answer.

"Someone else already has that username," explains Yusei, and he wonders who's out there that has the same name as the pharaoh and the need for an email address. Or maybe Kaiba's just trolling him. "Try another one. It doesn't have to be your name, you know? Mine isn't."

"But that's _my_ name," replies Atem, and he looks like he's going to pout, and who wouldn't be upset, after three thousand years of being 'the nameless pharaoh'?

"…Sorry," says Yusei. "That's kind of how the internet works. Pirates everywhere."

There's silence as Atem stares intently at the screen and tries to come up with an alternative. A few times he types something in, but before Yusei can make sense of whatever he's putting it, Atem presses down the backspace key and starts all over again. Finally, Atem looks to his side and asks stubbornly, "You can't do anything about it?"

Yusei shakes his head, wonders how long Atem'll be stuck on this.

Surprisingly, it's not that long.

"Then…"

_fudoyusei at kcorp dot com_

He laughs. "…I suppose I'll steal someone else's, too."


	6. So, Did You Get my Text?

**so did you get my text? : **Yugi based! Basically a sequel to _in my day_, the one with Atem and email accounts.

* * *

><p><em>so did you get my text?<em>

* * *

><p>Yugi starts getting emails from a guy named <em>Fudo Yusei<em>, and that would be wonderful and great, except that Yusei doesn't send him emails – he sends him text messages, and moreover, Yugi's pretty sure that Yusei's email address is a nickname. For the first few days, the sender mails Yugi about important things like _we're running out of toilet paper, can you pick some up on the way back? _and _FOR THE RECORD JUDAI'S THE ONE THAT BROKE THE GUITAR_, which aren't very suspicious, but around the sixth time in two days that Yugi checks his mail, _Fudo Yusei _calls him "aibou."

There are three options.

One is that Yusei is one of those people with a drastically different personality on the internet. Instead of being calm, cool, and collected, Yusei is a spastic fanboy that drops caps lock like they're nothing and spends his free time on 4chan as a part time troll.

Two is that Atem has somehow managed to get online and onto one of Yusei's side accounts, and is emailing Yugi out of boredom, love, and devotion. This one is unlikely because Atem isn't allowed on technology, can't spell properly in Japanese to save his life, and Yusei is very specific about his laptop and his email and there's no way he'd ever let someone so incompetent as Atem so much as touch the cover. Yugi's pretty sure the only ones who have ever touched Yusei's laptop are Bruno and Aki, and only because Bruno probably _made _it and Aki is Yusei's girlfriend. There was a point when Judai was allowed, too, but that didn't last very long.

Three is that this is one of those fangirl trolls, like that one who nabbed _atem at kcorp_ and started sexually harassing him.

Yugi shudders at the memory of the last one. He crosses it off his mental list, since _Fudo Yusei _was right about the toilet paper thing, so he has to be someone on the inside. The only other option is Judai, but Judai's not on the computer too much; he finds the internet rather boring, and the only time Yugi ever sees Judai on a laptop, he's usually watching silly videos of cats sent to him by his old dorm advisor.

So that leaves Yusei and Atem.

Yugi sighs, plugs in his earbuds, and dials Yusei's number. It's on speed dial, number four to Judai's three and Anzu's two. He has to wait for one bell, two bells, three bells. He furrows his brow, because what's taking Yusei so long? He's usually pretty fast, since his phone is connected to his laptop, and his laptop has a ridiculously accurate voice command that recognizes him two rooms away. Four bells, and finally –

"Uhhh hello?"

"… Aki?"

"Oh hey Yugi. What's up."

Somewhere in the background: "Aki Yugi only calls when something important is going down so you're going to have to get off of me—_OUCH._"

"…Am I interrupting something?" asks Yugi.

There's a lot of loud shifting around and some "YUSEI OH GOD WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING—MMPH," so Yugi has to hold the phone at a distance and he stares at it in bewilderment, deciding, yeah, okay, this is probably a bad time. About ten seconds later a dead silence falls and then it's apparent that Yusei's wrestled his phone out of Aki's grip because now it's him speaking, a grin very evident in his voice: "Hi, Yugi. How can I help you? What did Judai break?"

Yugi briefly contemplates telling Yusei that he can call later, but then decides against it, since Yusei already went to all that trouble to do whatever it is that he did. Yugi shakes himself to refresh his brain, bring it back to the topic that's been troubling him for the past few days, and doesn't really know where to start. What is he supposed to say? _Hey, Yusei, I know your girlfriend can hear this and stuff, but is there a reason you called me aibou last night?_

"Yugi?" prompts Yusei at his friend's hesitation.

"Um," says Yugi. "What's your email address?"

"Satellite Shooting Star at KCorp," responds Yusei quickly, quizzically, "Why?"

"Someone's been sending me emails with your name attached to them," Yugi answers, and a sense of dread rises inside him as he realizes, _well, if it's not Yusei, it has to be_…

Yusei laughs – he's a lot looser than usual – and he says, "That'd be Atem. It's his account."

Before Yugi can ask why in the _world _Atem has his own account, and why Yusei would ever _help _him with one, for that matter, an alert goes off on his phone that means he's got two text messages, followed shortly by one that means the phone's just refreshed the email server and he's got another email to look at. "Ah, I'll call you later," Yugi tells Yusei, and there's a grunt in acknowledgement and the line's dead. Yugi checks his texts first: there's one from Judai that says _oh god I'm sorry_, and another from a number his phone doesn't recognize that says _aibou‼_.

"You guys," says Yugi, groaning, "I thought we had a _rule _about this."


	7. Got Milk?

**got milk? **: Starting to get incurably attached to Judai...

* * *

><p><em>got milk?<em>

* * *

><p>Despite the constant drone that is his protests, the soda ban doesn't hit Judai right away. In fact, it doesn't really hit him until the day when he's sitting with the Playstation, playing <em>Duelists of the Roses<em>, and he reaches for a drink that isn't there. He feels his stomach cry out in despair and grumpily pulls himself up like a zombie, goes into the kitchen, and opens the fridge in pointless hopes that there'll be something mildly useful inside.

Milk, eggs, apple juice, milk, ramen, ramen, age old ramen, yesterday's shrimp, some cold pizza, more milk, some carrots (how'd they get in there?)…

Judai groans and slams the fridge shut, lets out a loud, melodramatic sigh, and checks the freezer. Ice cream, ice cream, pecan flavored ice cream (what the hell, Atem), frozen mozzarella sticks, frozen shrimp, corn, some more frozen shrimp, meat, meat, Go-Gurt, frozen TV dinner, French fries—wait, what. "Who the _hell _put the Go-Gurt in the freezer?" cries out Judai, and he whips around to glare angrily at the empty hallway for an answer.

A moment, and then Atem's voice from two doors down: "It says on the box that it's fine! It tastes better that way anyway!"

Judai pulls out the box and squints at the tiny text: it mentions a lot of things that Judai doesn't care about, like the calories and the ingredients, so Judai's eyes skim and scan for the information he needs, find it, and he scowls. "It's just a suggestion!" He shouts back, and he slams the freezer shut, pulls open the refrigerator with unnecessary force, puts the box inside. _Slam_! Judai growls, stalks out of the kitchen with his stomach unfulfilled, and sits back down on the sofa in a huff.

"Whoa, Judai, that time of the month again?" asks Yugi, whose just come in with a stick of chocolate Pocky in his teeth and a bag of Atem's new favorite candy hanging from his arm. "I thought we changed you back."

Judai stares at Yugi with a mix between a glare and a pout; he looks about six years old, like someone's just forced him to share his Duel Monsters cards with the schoolhouse bully and then spilled his juice to boot. Yugi flushes, backs up a bit. "Sorry," he quickly apologizes. "You okay, though?"

"Thirsty," Judai mutters, and Yugi can't do much about that, since Judai lost a duel. They have a few scattered rules around their home, but there's one that reigns absolutely supreme above all: when something's been decided by duel, there's no going against it. Judai lost the match for the soda ban – it's official, written on the dry-erase board on their fridge and everything, right next to _the next time Yusei asks Kaiba for help on something he's getting kicked out_. So there's no going back now unless Atem changes his mind, which is fairly unlikely, since three thousand years tends to make a person just a little stubborn (Judai'll open the freezer in about two hours, and the Go-Gurt will have mysteriously reappeared under some of the fried shrimp).

"Sorry," Yugi says again, and there's not much else to say. He doesn't even have a smile to offer; just a shrug, and then Atem calls out, "Aibou, is that you?" and Judai groans extremely loudly, and Yugi awkwardly walks away. Judai's seriously acting grumpy today, something that can probably be attributed to withdrawal.

"Dammit," says Judai, and he picks up the controller, attempts to get into the game again, but by now he's so out of it there's really no point. His eyes catch his cell phone, lying innocently on the table, and out of boredom, Judai picks it up, checks his messages. Judai's a popular kid; he's got several texts from Sho and Johan, even one from Manjoume, but Judai gets an idea, ignores all of them.

Lounging around on the sofa, crashed and lazy, Judai dials a number he's sure will pick up, and that is—

"Hello?"

"Yusei!"

"Judai. What's up?"

"Nothing, really. Hey, um, Yusei, you wanna do me a favor?"

Yusei doesn't say "yes" or "no"; rather, he listens to Judai's request and probably shakes his head a little, thinks Judai's a little kid, but Judai doesn't care, because he's going through _withdrawal, _dammit, and it's not even his fault that the carpet got destroyed, because he still stands by the idea that it shouldn't have been out and in use in the first place.

There's a sigh, an "I'll see, Judai," and then the phone goes dead. Judai goes back to _Duelists of the Roses_ rejuvenated and excited, and waits for Yusei, his potential hero, to come home.

* * *

><p>Yusei comes back late into the night with a plastic bag in his hand that makes Judai's face light up. Judai follows him around the house from the moment Yusei takes off his shoes to the second he walks into his room, but then Yusei says, "Sorry, Judai, rules are rules," and locks the door to before Judai can invade.<p>

"You_say_," Judai whines, his face falling, and he slams his fists on the door, but there's no response. Feeling betrayed despite the fact that Yusei'd promised nothing, Judai sighs exasperatedly and finally, just gives up and goes to bed.

* * *

><p><em>SAILING MY SEA, YEEEEEEEEEAH! NEVER SAAAAAY DIE—<em>

Judai wakes up halfway between his dream about being a pirate and his dream about being a ninja, and he rubs his eyes and yells at the world that he was just about to save the princess and it was going to be absolutely _awesome_. He realizes the source of his newest pain is his cell phone and wonders who in the world is calling him at the ungodly hour of—he checks the screen—2AM in the morning.

Then he sees it's Yusei.

"Hello?" Judai says groggily.

"Come outside," says Yusei.

Judai's doesn't ask any questions. He pulls off the covers and in his Winged Kuriboh pajamas, Judai climbs out of bed and scratches his head, slips out of his room as quietly as he can without waking Atem or Yugi. He sees Yusei leaning against the wall near the kitchen, and he has a smirk on his face and a bag in his hands. He gestures for Judai to go in the kitchen, to look at the table.

It's set with two bottles of milk, one chocolate and one plain. Judai, nonplussed, stares at Yusei, waiting for some sort of explanation to being woken up at 2AM for chocolate milk, when what he asked for was soda. Yusei slides into one of the chairs and takes his drink.

"I couldn't get you soda," Yusei explains, nodding at the other chair so Judai takes a seat, "it's banned."

Judai opens his mouth to say something, but he's not really sure what'll come out, so he closes it, opts to take the seat. He slowly grins, takes a swig of the chocolate milk, and hey, he supposes, late nights with Yusei and addictions won't be so bad.


	8. Age Old Wine & Trail Mix

**General Notes: **Birthday fic for Kasib~! HAPPY BIRTHDAY KASIB, YOU EIGHTEEN YEAR OLD YOU.

**age old wine & trail mix: **Our four man band is invited to Pegasus's wedding on an island thirteen hours away. Who's up for a road trip? (I have a draft for the wedding somewhere...)

* * *

><p><em>Age Old Wine &amp; Trail Mix<em>

* * *

><p>The invitation comes in the mail two months before the date of the wedding, in a pink and lacy envelope decorated with a fancy logo for Industrial Illusions. Atem's the one who receives it, but he refuses to open it alone at the risk of his masculine pride, and anyway, it's addressed to Yugi. That doesn't stop him from leaving it on the fridge with a magnet where both Judai and Yusei can see it, though – it's a poorly disguised plot to get one of them to open it before Yugi comes home, but Atem's attempts to satisfy his curiosity are fruitless. Yusei evidentially holds no interest for the contents, and it takes some convincing before Judai agrees to taint himself, and by then Yugi gets home anyway.<p>

And that's how on the eve of Valentine's Day, Judai, Yusei, Yugi, and Atem end up opening a love letter from Pegasus.

Yugi's the brave soul that removes the stickered seal and pulls out the hard, stiff invitation. He grimaces as the stench of fancy French perfume fills the room and gives Yusei a headache, if only because he spends most of his time in garages and junkyards and most things that don't smell like such raw masculinity are foreign to him. The invitation is lacy just as its package and an obnoxious, eye-throbbing shade of pink, with a gold border and matching lettering that officially invites the four of them to the wedding and reception of Pegasus J. Crawford and his newest lover.

Pegasus gets married about once every two years, and it truly is unfortunate for the poor man that nothing ever seems to last, but his wedding invitations begin to get repetitive the fourth time around. Judai wonders aloud why he keeps trying if it's such a slippery game for him, but then again, games are the way their lives work, so it's not so surprising.

"Well, whatever," says Judai, shaking his head dismissively as Yugi passes the letter to Yusei, "We're not going this time, right?" Judai recalls the last time they went; it'd been about an hour away and Anzu had somehow managed to convince Atem that it'd be fun and dragged the rest of them along, that it'd be fun, that there was more to life than games. She was completely wrong in thinking that it'd be a good time. The boys begrudgingly agreed and dressed themselves at the last minute, but upon arrival Atem's tuxedo was attacked by stray wine that came from suspiciously close to Bakura. He spent the entire night complaining about people he didn't like and anything else he could think of, up to and including the food. It was barely edible, and before it the ceremony was delayed by at least three hours, with only a crudely fashioned slideshow of Pegasus and his fiancée's five months together to entertain them. Judai got so bored that he started dueling Johan via text message under the table, something that he got in trouble for later, and Yugi fell asleep on Atem's shoulder half-an-hour into the program.

It was pretty much the disaster that assured they didn't get invited to any of Pegasus's formal parties within the next few months. Not that they minded being discluded; it was nice not to feel obligated, and for Atem, it was nice not having Yugi tell him that it was rude to say no to someone's polite invitation.

Yusei happens to be the only one of them that's never been invited to any of Pegasus's parties, and that's only because he's relatively new to the Yu-Gi-Oh! phenomenon compared to the others. Presently, he's reading the letter with a scrunched up nose and raised eyebrows, and he says only, after a whistle, "…This address is thirteen hours away by car," which for Yusei is neither a confirmation nor a denial, but the others take it as something leaning towards a 'no.' He passes the letter on to Atem, who skims it once then tosses it on the coffee table. An extra note falls to the ground from it; Atem picks it up and unfolds it, narrowing his eyes at the offending cursive handwriting that fills his vision. It's a piece of stationary with toon monsters decorated around it, including the Dark Magician, Elemental Hero Neos, and Stardust Dragon. Atem exhales, licks his lips, and begins to read:

"_Mon cher garcon Yugi et les mecs qui habitent chez lui._"

There's a pause. Atem looks up to meet their gazes, and upon confirmation that they're all of the same mind, there's a collective groan.

"What does that even _mean_?" asks Judai, and he sinks into a seat on the sofa, grabs the controller on the floor and turns on the console so he's only half paying attention. He shakes his head from side to side, asking, "Do any of us even _speak _French?" At this question he looks blankly from Yugi to Atem to Yusei; the last one shrugs, offering, "I know someone. But I've put it in a translator already." Yusei points out his phone, where the phrase from the letter's been typed in and comes out roughly comprehensible.

"It's basically a greeting to all four of us," Yusei explains.

Atem shakes his head and reads on:

"_Bonjour_! Did you miss me, Yugi-boy? Do pardon the French, the language of love~! I've just returned from a year in Paris! The letter you've just received is an invitation to my wedding to my lovely fiancée Taylor-Françoise – please do consider coming, she'd be ever so delighted to meet the champions of Duel Monsters. I've even prepared special rooms for everyone who attends, and will pay for any attractions you visit during your stay~!

"_Grosses bisous_, Pegasus J. Crawford."

Atem stares at the note for a moment before crumpling it up and tossing it in the trash can.

"No," he speaks firmly, and knowing Yugi's response before it could leave the boy's mouth, he turns, towers over his partner, and says again, "Aibou, no."

"Well, _I'm _not going," says Judai to give Atem some support as his game starts. "You all can go if you want to, but I've just about had it with explicitly flamboyant older men." He shivers at scattered memories of his years at Duel Academy. The amount of strange older men he's had to deal with so far in his life is uncomfortably large, and one ordeal with Pegasus is more than enough for him.

Atem crosses his arms and nods, frowning, and in his expression he attempts to dictate that he agrees with Judai and will be as stubborn as a brick wall in this entire ordeal. He's just _not _going to go.

"Come on, guys," Yugi says, scratching the back of his head with a sheepish smile, "Be nice. It'll be fine, and we can go a few days early and spend most of the time at the park. I hear there's a duel tournament every day there, now." He looks up at Atem with his big, bright, purple eyes and Atem has to look away because it's too easy for Yugi to persuade him. "It'll be nostalgic," adds Yugi. "I know you like nostalgia."

"No," says Atem, and he looks to Judai, who nods, for more support. He hesitates, then adds: "…And if you really want nostalgia, I could go axe crazy and light our enemies on fire again."

Yugi ignores him and looks to Yusei. "What about you? What do you think?"

Yusei's helpful contribution is a shrug and, "It'd make for a helluva road trip."

Atem rolls his eyes. "Aibou, I already said. We're not going. You remember what happened last time, and I bet Kaiba will be there. You know when Kaiba's there that everything goes to hell faster than it does normally."

"Atem…"

"_No_. That's final."

* * *

><p>Yusei drives.<p>

They're not really sure how they end up agreeing, or who forces who or what happens at all, but Yusei drives.

They end up renting an SUV with eight seats; three for Atem and Yugi to share in the center, three in the back for Judai, and Yusei drives with whoever's turn it is to ride passenger. They pack about ten days worth of snacks and about two days worth of clothes, and at seven in the morning on the day they're set to leave, Anzu, who's taking a plane later that day, sees them off.

"You guys sure you don't want to fly there?" she asks concernedly when she sees the mess that has already become of the SUV. She's particularly weary of the half-empty bag of popcorn that lay innocently next to Judai and the steaming cup of coffee in the driver's side cup holder. She eyes Yusei with uncertainty, says, "Yusei, do you think you'll even be able to make it all the way? You'll be so tired."

Yusei shrugs. "It's not me I'm worried about." Both of them instinctively look at Atem, who's piling last minute things into the trunk (emergency Duel Monsters cards, hair care products, Yugi's pajamas, etc). Anzu chuckles quietly and Yusei tries not to smirk. They're both familiar enough with the pharaoh to know that he'll be the primary source of issue. Yusei normally takes his D-Wheel everywhere he has an errand, but he _has _been in the same car with Atem before. He's one of those guys that likes to drive from the backseat and gets bored halfway through the trip, especially now that he doesn't even have the mysteriousness of his very existence to ponder over.

Atem notices their gazes and looks up, nonplussed. Anzu smiles and waves, wishes Yusei good luck as there's a conclusive _thunk_ that is the trunk being shut. Yusei nods and sits in the driver's seat with an empty passenger's seat next to him (he's completely familiar with the area within a two hour radius, so he doesn't need a co-pilot just yet). Yusei starts up the engine and checks once behind him to see if everyone's all set; Judai's bouncing up and down with road trip excitement, Yugi's the only one wearing a seatbelt, and Atem's already taken out a book to entertain him until the motion induced headache will force him to put it away.

"Ready?" asks Yusei, and upon universal confirmation, he starts up the engine and accelerates. "Let's rev it up."

* * *

><p>About fifteen minutes into the trip Yusei realizes he forgot something.<p>

"Judai, did you print out the directions?"

"Uhhhh…"

So they're forced to drive back home and that adds about an hour's delay.

* * *

><p>The second time they embark on their journey they don't leave anything behind, because Yugi takes charge and makes all of them double check their belongings. It turns out Atem almost forgets his favorite silver bracelet inside his armoire, and he slips it on his wrist with such relief it's as though he might've hyperventilated if he'd found out he lost it later. They file into the car again and this time Judai sits in the front next to Yusei and sets in a mixed CD he fashioned earlier that week, and they head off the second time into the distance, all of them counting down the hours in their heads.<p>

Save for Yusei, the boys are ridiculously tired, having made the unwise decision of staying up late into the night despite the early trip in the morning. Yusei didn't have the luxury of taking the risk, and even though he's running on a solid twelve hours of sleep, seeing Judai constantly yawn his contagious yawns and watching Atem and Yugi fall asleep on each other every few minutes through his rearview mirror isn't really a good thing. He tries his best to keep his eyes open, but somewhere a block down from Ushio's traffic post, he's caught with his eyes closed and they're pulled over.

"…Yusei?" asks Ushio, a little surprised when he notices who's in the driver's seat and that Judai's curled into a ball next to him, a Winged Kuriboh pillow clutched close. "…Do you even _have _an automobile license?"

"No," says Yusei.

Ushio sighs and pulls off the Duel Disk on his security bike. "Well, come on, get out then. Let's duel."

* * *

><p>Judai stirs around the time Stardust Dragon appears and kills everything, and noticing that the duel is just about over he yawns, stretches, and feels that he's slept in a terrible position for his neck. Blinking some sleep out of his eyes but keeping enough so he can return to his dream, he crawls out of the passenger seat, opens Yugi's door, and jumps to the back, where he has another pillow and a blanket waiting for him. He gets in the most comfortable position he can without straining his neck and falls back asleep.<p>

Yugi's woken up by then because of all the noise that Judai makes, and he finds that Atem's using his lap as a pillow. He cranes his neck to watch the remainder of Yusei's duel, smiles at his victory, and upon Yusei's reentrance into the vehicle says, "Hi."

"Hi," says Yusei, and he revs up the engine, leaving a defeated Ushio in their wake. They hold a conversation for a while about girls and games, and Yugi asks how far off they are. Yusei doesn't answer. They drive around for another hour until they reach the toll, and Yusei pulls over and wonders aloud, "Do you or Atem have a license? I'd rather not duel every person on the way there."

Yugi stares at Yusei.

"…What?" asks Yusei, after Yugi's lack of a proper response.

"You just asked me if Atem has a license."

"…I did," agrees Yusei, and shakes his head. He turns back to the wheel, says, "Wake up Judai, will you?"

Yugi's puzzled but shrugs, and slowly shifts so that he doesn't wake Atem. "Hey, Judai," he calls, reaching over the seat and shaking the sleeping boy, "Wake up." Judai shakes him off and turns to the other direction, but Yugi is savvy enough about bringing Judai back to the world of the living. All he has to say is "Hey, Judai, shrimp!" and suddenly Judai's wide awake, sitting upright with ridiculous bed head and huge brown eyes.

"Hi," he says.

"Get your deck ready," says Yusei, and he drives up to the checkpoint. Judai has no idea what's going on, but he's not one to turn down a duel, so he shrugs, winces in pain at his sore neck, and gets out his cards.

The guy standing at the checkpoint is chewing gum and looks roughly as bored as Yusei does stoic. He asks to see Yusei's driver's license and reaches out an open palm, but Yusei pulls out his wallet, takes out a pen and a business card, crosses out his name and writes someone else's. Then he hands the card that says _Judai challenges you to a duel_ to the worker, puts the car in reverse and parks in the available spaces next to the duel arena. The worker stares blankly at the card before grinning at the excitement in his otherwise monochromatic day, taking out his deck, and temporarily closing his lane.

Judai wins in two turns.

It's a wonder this city bothers having traffic police at all.


	9. Chauffer

**le chauffer** : Poor Yusei.

* * *

><p><em>le chauffer<em>

* * *

><p>Crow buys Yusei one of those calendars with the special colors and stickers for different members of the family and doctor's appointments, respectively. The plastic it comes in proudly declares that it's Mommy's Perfect Family Organizer, and Crow's card reads snarikly, <em>For Mommy Yusei! Congratulations on your two baby boys.<em>

Crow means it to be a joke, of curse – it's because Yusei's the only one who can drive in their apartment (Yugi's learning, but Judai prefers his bike and can't be bothered), and usually ends up taking his housemates wherever they need to go, and often he's only told about his duties at the last minute. Just last week Yusei was late to a practice duel against Sherry and Bruno because Atem was late for his dentist's appointment, and while Jack thinks this is all pretty damn annoying, Crow's of the opinion that this is all kind of hilarious.

Yusei shrugs, thanks Crow for the present, and mounts it on the fridge, along with a note that reads:

_Atem. Judai._

_If it's not on the calendar, I'm not taking you._

—_Yusei_

Yusei thinks it's all a wonderful idea and that it'll work to his advantage. He puts it up while Judai and Atem are asleep, deafens his ears against Yugi's disbelief, and marches out the door, feeling satisfied with himself. He's sure Judai and Atem will decide that it's fair enough, and suddenly his schedule will be less hectic, more manageable, and he'll finally have time for himself and his friends outside of his roommates.

* * *

><p>He is, of course, completely incorrect in that notion.<p>

He gets the email notification somewhere around noon. It's from Yugi, and it's blank, and Yusei stares at it, nonplussed, before he realizes there's a scrollbar. He pulls down on the touchscreen and sees there's obscenely small text at the very bottom before Yugi's signature, and zooming in, Yusei reads: _I told you so._

Yusei dreads going home for the rest of the afternoon.

He avoids the kitchen upon his return, and is lucky in that neither Judai nor Atem approach him for anything. He goes into his room and lies down and closes his eyes, stretches a bit, marvels at where he is and how far he's gotten, how he never thought he'd be such close friends with Yugi or Atem or Judai. He starts to wonder what it'll be like with Yuma around in a few years – Yuma, who's so young compared to them, who's exciting and hyperactive and –

…Oh man.

Yusei pulls out his laptop and hopes for a distraction, blaming Crow for all of his problems, oh god why did he ever get that license.

* * *

><p>Sometime around midnight, the internet starts becoming increasingly irritating in that everything is food. The forums he visits are posting pictures of particularly delicious looking rainbow cakes and on MSN, Jack's changed his profile picture to him standing in front of his latest celebrity endorsement – which is, surprise, a giant cup of ramen. Yusei's stomach growls angrily at its master for not feeding it for hours, and Yusei sighs and gives up and creaks open his door to tiptoe down the hallway and into the kitchen for a glass of milk.<p>

He switches on the light and sees the fridge and his eyes are attacked by colors. It looks like a preschooler's marker set threw up all over the calendar. Except for Yugi's neat row, which is entirely empty except for _Anzu _on the upcoming Saturday night, the entire thing is a mess of purple and red and blue and green, while Judai and Atem struggle to get timeslot after timeslot of Yusei's time. Yusei comes closer to the calendar and squints at the days to try to make it out how it all started. Apparently, Judai had a tennis match and Atem had a tournament, Judai had a date (he likes to pretend that Yusei's his chauffer) and Atem had a card signing, Judai needed a ride to Johan's place and Atem wanted ice cream. And somehow it all ended up at the same time, and everything else is Judai and Atem fighting at each other, calling each other names and drawing little cartoon versions of their opponents being eaten by their ace monsters.

Yusei takes the calendar, rips it in two, and decides that tomorrow he'll call Crow and tell him how unappreciated his present turned out to be.


	10. Kattobingu

**kattobingu!** : Everyone should watch ZEXAL. If you don't like it, get out. :(

* * *

><p><em>kattobingu!<em>

* * *

><p>The general consensus of the inhabitants of the Saltwater Cave concerning Tsukumo Yuma – before the release of his show, that is – is relatively okay. Yuma is cute. He has an energetic spirit and a pure heart, and though his dueling prowess has yet to be determined, he's a nice kid. Thing is… his ability to stand up to the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise's name is still a concern (as it always is for a new protagonist), and the doubt is countered only by the absurdity that is Yuma's hair.<p>

And then ZEXAL comes out.

Yusei shuts off the cable and Judai turns on the gaming console and none of them really say anything, since most of their comments were made throughout their watching. Atem is particularly interested in Astral's existence; Yugi finds Yuma's character charming; the show makes Yusei a little dizzy, because he doesn't think he's ever seen so many bright colors in one place at one time, but he's excited and plans to watch the rest of it live.

No one addresses the elephant in the room. That is, until –

"I'm gonna get the boss this time," Judai says, as his character moves through a set of impressively large doors. "Look out, boss! I'M POP FLYING!"

It pretty much all goes to hell after that.

* * *

><p>Judai takes to inserting 'pop flying' into just about everything he says, and even comes up with an emoticon to go with it when he texts Johan and Sho, both of whom have no idea what he's talking about because they haven't even finished 5D's, never mind ZEXAL. Whenever he walks into a room with silent inhabitants he waits a few moments, looks away, and says it calmly, like he's mumbling to himself. Sometimes, he sneaks up to Yusei while he's working in the garage and whispers it in his ear.<p>

Yusei jumps and threatens to call the cops next time Judai does that, but he can't really decide whether his heartbeat is so fast because he was scared shitless or if he's laughing too hard.

* * *

><p>Compared to Judai, Atem prefers to be a purist, and refuses to use the phrase 'pop flying' or any of its other English translations. He sticks to the original: <em>kattobingu<em>, and while Judai wears the joke out fairly quickly, bringing it up at least five times a day, Atem is very precise when he strikes. He's a king, after all.

"Hey, Atem," calls Judai one day, trying his best to hold back his laughter when he sees the pharaoh walk by with a giant stuffed panda fastened securely in his arms, "What's up? You lose a bet or something?"

Atem scoffs, doesn't even bother to stop, and calls back, coolly, "Shut up, Judai. Your _kattobingu_ is nothing compared to mine."

* * *

><p>"You guys are kind of jerks," Yugi says, shaking his head disapprovingly. "I bet when he duels you, he'll bring it to ya."<p>

* * *

><p>Yusei's approach is a little stranger than the others.<p>

"I'm naming him Bingo," announces Yusei, his poker face perfectly in place. He puts the fluff of fur previously in his arms on the floor and it purrs, nestles up against Judai's leg affectionately. It's warm and adorable and Judai wonders why they'd never thought of getting a cat before this.


	11. Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies

**Notes: **For the record, in my fics, it works like this: Ryou is Yugi's friend, Bakura is the Spirit of the Ring, Malik is Ishizu's younger brother, and Yami no Malik is Yami Marik.

**rocks fall, everyone dies ; **In which there is D&D, and a guest appearance by Bakura.

* * *

><p><em>Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies<em>

* * *

><p>The thing that people tend to forget is that Yu-Gi-Oh! hasn't always been about Duel Monsters. There was a time—before Yugi's balls dropped and when Atem was nothing more than a homicidal hijacker—that the franchise was about games of all sorts, particularly a spectacular array of games that Atem made up in about two seconds to counter his enemies. Back in the day, Yu-Gi-Oh! was different, and Atem liked to remind Yusei and Judai that they were mere children in the face of the King of Games because of that fact.<p>

Judai and Yusei get sick of this side of Atem's pride fairly quickly, and they know he hasn't played a single game other than Duel Monsters or Dungeon Dice Monsters in over three years. They point all this out to Yugi one day via text while Atem's lecturing the three of them about back in his day, when murdering people for being cheaters was allowed, and the director's attitude was pretty much, "Anything goes." Yugi nods and says he'll do something about it, but he doesn't say when or how, and the matter drops to the back of their minds for a few days.

It doesn't come back up again until one boring Saturday night that Yugi commands Atem to put on his jacket and get in the car. Yusei and Judai (the former playing with Bingo, the latter reading a magazine) are as confused as Atem is. The pharaoh stands without question, however, and asks as he gets his coat, "… Are we going on a date?"

"No, we're going shopping," says Yugi sarcastically, and he grabs his keys. Atem raises an eyebrow, shrugs, and follows him out the door. Yusei and Judai exchange a glance, both looking at the other for an answer, but neither has one to supply. That's when Bingo purrs and points out a crumpled up piece of paper lying on the floor that hadn't been there moments prior; the cat picks it up with its mouth and brings it to Yusei, who unfolds the note and reads it aloud. It's from Yugi, who's instructed them to meet him at the local library in an hour or so, and to bring some snacks.

Judai shrugs. "Hey. Not like we're doing anything."

"Suppose you're right," Yusei agrees, and they, too, get their jackets and head out the door.

* * *

><p>"Aibou," says Atem when they leave the fancy restaurant and arrive at the library instead of a bedroom, "What exactly are we doing <em>here<em> now?" It's cold outside and his breath leaves tiny clouds suspended in the air for seconds before they disappear.

"You'll see," says Yugi, smiling mischievously, and Atem's never sure what to think when he sees that smile, but it's either really good or really bad.

He wraps the scarf around him tighter and follows Yugi inside the building – somewhat surprisingly, there's a sign on the door that says it's open twenty-four hours. The lights inside are warm and inviting because of their reminder of heat, and they hurriedly scurry inside, immensely grateful when they pass the threshold and warmth greets them with its sudden embrace. They shed their winter coats, hang them on the rack designated for patrons of the library, and Yugi smiles and waves at a few people that he recognizes that recognize him.

Yugi goes to the front desk and asks about conference rooms. The girl who works there pulls out a thick black binder with sticky notes falling out of it everywhere and heaves it up onto the counter so that she can look through and check for any appointments. While she does that, Yugi checks his phone and Atem, a little too grumpy and a little too aware that Yugi won't supply any answers, watches a little boy obnoxiously spin the DVD case around and around and around.

"He's not even reading the names," Atem mumbles disapprovingly to himself. "That was one of the best musicals Aibou's made me watch."

"Did you say something, sir?" asks the girl at the counter, pausing in her search to address the disgruntled pharaoh. Yugi takes Atem's hand and squeezes it a little, and that's enough to stop his grumpy muttering – for now. But the buzz kill that is the library is secretly burning in the back of the pharaoh's mind. He can see it in ruins. He can see himself in Yugi somewhere else, and—

"Ah, found it," the girl cuts into Atem's thoughts and he looks at her and Yugi and back again. She nods. "Yes. It's yours. Conference Room A. You can have it until 5'o'clock this morning. Please do clean up after yourself once you leave, or you may be banned from future Conference Room privelages."

"Thank you," says Yugi with a smile and a nod, then he leads the way down a flight of stairs and into a corridor, lined with fancy brown doors on each side, and a placard on each that reads whatever it is in serif font. The hallway is apparently for vastly important things; there's one labeled "break room" and another is "janitor's closet", and another still is "unsorted Yu-Gi-Oh! Merchandise." They've just located Conference Room A (as Atem attempts to coax an answer out of Yugi for the tenth time to no avail) when they hear the muffled sounds of a familiar voice coming leaking through the door.

"So I summoned Neos, of course, and Asuka—"

Yugi opens the door to find Judai and Yusei already there, lounging around in the revolving office chairs like they own the place. Judai has a bubble wand in his hand and the soap on the table, and is blowing bubbles aimlessly at Yusei's head while the other has some ice cream (they stopped for ice cream along the way, and ran into Yuma, too, but that's another tale). The two of them acknowledge Yugi and Atem differently; Yusei sits up in a more polite position than before while Judai salutes them with two fingers and a tacit gotcha.

"Yo," says one, while the other says, "Hey."

"Okay," says Atem, turning Yugi around so they're facing each other, "Yugi. _What _are we doing here?"

Yugi doesn't have a chance to respond properly, because just as he says that another unexpected person arrives behind Atem, and he speaks in a familiar voice that Atem _does not like_ and twitches at the sound of: "Oh. Good, you're all here." The owner of the voice shoves past them in his long leather jacket and sets down his bag of D&D things on the table; Bakura takes his seat at the head's chair, puts his legs up, and says with a grin, "Let's play."

Atem looks from Bakura to Yugi to Bakura to Yugi to Judai to Yugi to Yusei's ice cream to Bakura to Yugi and then finally decides that the best thing to say here is a simple, "_What_."

"C'mon," says Yugi enthusiastically, letting go of Atem's hand and taking a seat across from Judai. "It'll be fun, mou hitori no boku." Bakura starts to unpack his bag and passes character sheets around the table – Bakura's running a one-shot for them, and the characters are premade. Yugi pulls two sheets close to him and nods, slides one to where Atem will sit and the other for himself. Atem hasn't moved.

"Aibou, are you forgetting he _locked your souls _into little plastic figurines?"

"Oh, please," snorts Bakura, rolling his eyes and testing various dice, each with a different number of sides. "Get over it, Pharaoh, the show's over. It's _been _over for years now."

Atem looks to Yusei and Judai for backup, but Judai just shrugs and Yusei's too interested in his character sheet to look up at him, so Atem ends up looking back at Bakura and back at Yugi and he crosses his arms.

"Aw, Atem," Yugi tries, doing his best to look like a sad, lonely puppy that wants to play a game with his busy human. "C'mon. It'll be good for you to play something other than Duel Monsters. It's been so long!" Atem's face barely changes, so Yugi sighs, does his shy little smile, and asks, "For me?"

"Some King of Games," inputs Bakura, snickering. "Has to be bribed into traditional role-playing, huh? Afraid I'll win?"

At that Atem stomps into the seat next to Yugi, sits down, and grabs some dice.

"No shadow games, okay, you two?" says Yugi. He motions to Yusei and Judai, and adds, "Play nice. We have some D&D virgins with us."

Atem and Bakura are staring each other down, one glaring, one nearly giggling, but they both nod and Yusei declares that he's ready and the game begins.

* * *

><p>"Your party enters an inn. It's nearly empty, there's only the bartender and two people at one of the circular tables, whispering quietly to each other over their drinks. Upon your entrance they look up, but then they shake their heads and return to their conversation, judging you as nothing significant." Bakura stops and looks at each of them for a moment, then at their lack of response, asks, "What do you do?"<p>

Their game is set up relatively simply; they don't have figurines or a map set up, or anything, really, except for Bakura who has his notes and things. Yusei, Judai, Atem, and Yugi have only their character sheets, and Yusei's already remarked how it's strange that Duel Monsters has evolved so much but table-top role-playing games have been pretty much the same since Yugi's early career.

Judai, who's character sheet lists him as a human paladin, takes charge of their group, being the only one fit to fight or lead – Yugi's character is a half-elf wizard, Atem's is an elf bard, and Yusei ends up with a cleric. A female cleric. Which Yusei points out twice. He's ignored both times.

"Uhh, roll listen to see if I can hear their conversation?" asks Judai. Bakura motions for him to roll. Judai picks up one of the multicolored D20s at the center of the table and rolls, and the other three shrug and do the same. Judai gets a total check of four; Yusei manages a seven, and Yugi earns a good fourteen. Atem gets a critical failure.

"The bard, despite being a musically inclined elf, is apparently deaf," announces Bakura, and Yugi has to hold Atem down so he doesn't strangle their Dungeon Master. "Crabhead and Shrimpface can barely make out anything, but Yugi, you hear—would you like to share with the others?" Yugi nods. "What the subject of their conversation was before you entered the inn is indiscernible," Bakura says, and then he grins and continues, "Their topic of conversation now, however, is how short that girl's skirt is." He looks pointedly at Yusei.

Judai snorts. Yusei keeps a straight face, checks his sheet, and says, "Rolling diplomacy. Let's seduce one of them and find out what they were talking about."

The others stare at Yusei. His expression doesn't change. "Always take advantage of the things you have. Growing up in Satellite taught me that."

"…Yusei, uh…"

"Roll the dice," commands Bakura, and Yusei rolls a twenty, and things get rather interesting rather quickly.

* * *

><p>Yusei's new friend (<em>eventually<em>) leads them to a desert; Bakura says that they've gotten to the boss fight surprisingly fast, and if they win their next major encounter, he'll consider this game a success and expand it for a general audience. Judai notes that it's unlikely that other players will be as seductive as Yusei has been so far; the number of high rolls he's had so far are uncanny, and he's switched dice a number of times so there's no way he's getting them because they're weighted. He's just _that _lucky. Or maybe it's better to say that she is.

"Your party arrives at the front door to the Desert Palace. There's no one around for miles, as far as any of you can discern." Bakura turns to Judai, the least squishy of their party. "What do you do?"

"Something useful, I hope," mutters Atem, who's had more than a few things to say about how useless Judai's being. Yusei's the only one who's done much, though, and Yugi's really only making good spot and listen checks. Atem himself has sang a few songs to open a few doors. Bakura made him actually sing them aloud. It wasn't pretty in real life, but in game, it was worth at least a twenty-four.

Judai rolls his eyes and casually tells the pharaoh to shut his elf mouth. Yugi has to restrain Atem _again_, and it's getting harder to do so by the hour and sugar intake. "We'll charge the front door, of course," says Judai.

"_You'll_ charge the door," interjects Yusei. "I'm in a skirt."

They don't have the energy to argue with him. Yugi and Atem roll to aid Judai in breaking open the door, and Bakura starts cackling madly the moment they're successful. Which, of course, isn't a good sign at all.

"Fort, reflex, and will saves," he commands immediately, and then cackling even harder, he says with even more insane edge than usual, "From all of you!"

"_What_?"

"Welcome to the Final Dungeon."

* * *

><p>It takes some time, but they beat the final boss. Around 3:00AM, Atem takes off his pants and throws them at Bakura's face, and proclaims "HA!" after his bard landed a critical hit and killed their enemy by kicking him in the nads.<p>

"… …So does that mean we win?" Judai asks, yawning. His character died halfway through the battle after hitting his head on a wall in a daze (he failed his will save), and the amount of sugar in his body was slowly organizing a hostile takeover on the real Judai, too. He's barely awake now and takes his head off of Yusei's shoulder.

"No," says Bakura, throwing Atem's pants back at his face. "You don't."

"What?" snaps Atem, outraged, completely ignoring Yugi's pleas for him to put his pants back on. "_Why the hell not_?"

"Because," says Bakura, angrily gathering his things again, "Rocks fall. Everyone dies. _You lose, Pharaoh_."


	12. Your Glistening Nails

**your glistening nails ****;** _makemagic _is the glamorous theme song for Bonds Beyond Time, and sports lovely lyrics such as 'your glistening nails,' 'your cherry lips,' and 'is it okay if I embrace you'?

* * *

><p><em>your glistening nails<em>

* * *

><p>Atem is always suspicious when their salon invitations come in – they're paid for by the studio and guarantee that Atem, Yugi, Judai, and Yusei will all be busy and occupied at the same time, will all be away from the studio and the production staff at the same time. It's a paranoia that rises in him because of two past incidents in particular: the first one being from back when it was just himself and Yugi, when they were getting their facials for <em>Pyramid of Light<em> and behind their backs Judai Yuki was being signed on for GX. The second one is more recent - when Yusei, Judai, Yugi, and Atem were getting their make-up done for _Bonds Beyond Time_, and miles away a boy named Tsukumo Yuma was doing test screenings for an exciting new show the studio later dubbed ZEXAL. Behind the protagonists' backs. Again.

There are a few reasons why it's easier for Atem to stand Yusei – there isn't as much bitterness in him from when he was casted for 5D's, because Atem and Yugi and Judai were actually _consulted_ that time around, and it's nice to be asked for input instead of being shipped off for another full day of manicures and pedicures (even if manicures and pedicures are nice, too).

Presently, they're in the back of a subway car headed to the other side of town, where the studio they've been invited to is located, and Atem refuses to shut up about his suspicions. Yugi, reading a book, nods politely at whatever it is Atem's going on about while not really paying attention, which leaves poor Judai and Yusei to hear him out. They take turns doing this – Yusei, prepared as always, brought his laptop, and is currently trying to beat Judai's high score on Pinball, which leaves Judai to argue halfheartedly with Atem.

"I'm _serious_," Atem's going on, "there's something fishy going on. There's _always _something fishy going on – remember that one time they invited us for the whole day, just so they could have a staff meeting about when they could bring up 5D's?"

"And look how bad that turned out," Judai states, examining his nails thoughtfully. It's been a while since they've had an appointment, and though he's tried his best he hasn't been able to get the perfect sheen on his cuticles. He wonders aloud, "Do you guys think Kagami will be in today? He's like a wizard, man."

"Do none of you care at _all_?" Atem groans, slapping a hand to his forehead. "This is _important_, what if they do something drastic? Like—like—what if they make a new Kuriboh?" He's nearly panicking now, and looks to Winged Kuriboh, who's just appeared above Yusei's shoulder and is watching the laptop's screen intensely – Yusei's only got one ball left and he's barely made a dent into Judai's score.

Yugi turns a page in his book. "They already did, _mou hitori no boku_."

Atem freezes. "What?"

Yugi takes the card that's sitting on his lap (he's been using it as a bookmark) and slowly shows it to Atem. It's a copy of Kuribolt.

Atem tries to say something once, twice, three times, and fails.

"_Why does no one tell me _anything _anymore_?_"_


	13. Extra Credit

**Notes: **The idea of Judai helping the twins in Yusei's place was adopted from astrya02 here at ffdotnet. I'm in an idealess slump, pretty much, so all my thanks to her for letting me use her idea. Dunno if I stayed true to what she wanted, but it's decently sized~!

I'm using official Japanese names for pretty much everyone, and originally I used Rua and Ruka for the twins, but I think it's a little easier to distinguish between them when they're Leo and Luna. So there's my explanation for that inconsistency.

**extra credit **; This one's a little different. Established spiritshipping. Lots of Judai, a little more serious than your usual Elysium banter, and longer, too. Hope you like it anyway. Please let me know what you think!

* * *

><p><em>extra credit<em>

* * *

><p>On the bright, sunny day that Yusei heads out to the other end of the city, Judai has plants that involve doing absolutely nothing of worth, which is considerably unsurprising. He wonders if maybe he should go see a movie - he can call up Asuka or Rei or maybe even Edo, since the new Spiderman is out - but he's not sure if he's really in the mood to sit around quietly in a theater for three hours when it's so nice out. Instead, maybe he'll skype Johan and yell at him for choosing the worst days ever to be out of the country, or ask Jun if he's too busy being rich and having a pool to invite Judai over. Whatever he plans to do, Judai's day doesn't look like it's going to be productive at all.<p>

After some thinking, a walk seems like the best idea, and yeah, he'll grab his cellphone so he can call his boyfriend and yell at him properly while enjoying the pleasant view of the artificial lake at the park all alone. Judai grabs his stuff - cellphone, keys, deck, you know, the important things - and stuffs it in his pockets. Just as he's about to leave, however, there's an unexpected ring at the doorbell. Judai, surprised, goes to the door system and checks to see who it is (they've installed a camera at the front door of their building, which allows them to check who's at the door visually before allowing their guests up). Judai presses a button and a screen by their door flickers to life and reveals the faces of two green-haired kids, smiling at the camera and calling for Yusei. Leo and Luna are holding two heavy textbooks in their arms. They're dressed in their school uniforms, and after a quick glance at the clock, Judai guesses they walked here immediately after school.

Judai presses the button to turn on the microphone, smiling. "Hey, you guys."

"Judai-niisan!" Leo proclaims excitedly; he's surprised that someone other than Yugi or Yusei has answered the door, and moreover, he's still not over the fact that he actually knows and can converse with _the _Judai Yuki. "Hi!"

"Hello!" Luna pitches in sweetly. "Is Yusei home? We thought he could help us with our homework, if he's not busy."

"Sorry," Judai says, "Yusei's not home. But you can come up anyway, if you'd like, I don't mind the company." There's a pause, and Luna winces before it comes, because she can see it coming a mile away-Judai's face lights up and _zing, lightbulb_! "Oh, heeey, what if I helped you instead?"

Leo's proclamation of excitement towers over Luna's hurried refusal, and Judai, glad to finally have something worth doing, immediately lets them up. Leo nearly trips under the weight of his backpack he runs up to the elevator so fast; Luna followers after him, a small, sheepish smile on her face along with visible secondhand embarrassment.

When they reach the floor they find the door to the Saltwater Cave open, and Judai's leaning against it, welcoming them inside with a grin. "Hey, Leo, Luna! Come on in. Help yourself to some snacks and stuff if you want, it's all on Yusei."

They do so, and he closes the door behind them, claps his hands, rubs them together. Luna is too polite to accept Judai's offering on Yusei's tab, but Leo heads into the kitchen immediately and pulls out some juice (there only because of Judai, who's still trying to find some sort of outlet in place of soda). Leo and Luna seat themselves on the sofa and place their textbooks on the coffee table with Leo's juice, and from their backpacks they pull out notebooks and pencils and erasers, and even a fancy looking calculator, the likes of which Judai's sure exists in Misawa's head.

He gulps, and suddenly remembers how much actual schoolwork he learned in school.

"Alright!" he says, clearing his throat and sitting down between them. "What d'we have here?" He takes one of the books from the table and reads the cover aloud: "..._Advanced Physics_?" His bewilderment is obvious when he whistles. "Wow, Luna, this is impressive."

Luna's humbled. "Thank you, Ju-nii!" Judai turns to Leo's book - it, too, is for a subject that practically screeches Yusei's name. "_Coding for Beginners_? ...Wow, you two."

Judai's words are supportive, but it's plain to Luna that he's not going to be very helpful with their work. There's a reason they come to Yusei for these kinds of things - it's his forte, and though Luna respects Judai quite a bit (his being to see spirits, too, has led her to want to consult him more than once), Judai is not the type to be useful when they need help with schoolwork.

But as she watches Kuribon appear to play with Winged Kuriboh, Luna doesn't want to voice that. And who knows - she could be wrong, and Judai could secretly be some sort of technological genius (reading all those comics had to give him _some _sort of knowledge, right?), and he's graduated high school, anyway, so there's no way such simple math will puzzle him too much. She smiles, having reassured herself, and Luna laughs, too.

"Okay, Judai-niisan, you're gonna help me get an A!"

Judai's surprised at her sudden enthusiasm, but he fists pumps. "Yeah!"

* * *

><p>It goes absolutely no where, real fast. Luna, for all her optimistic and kind soul, is completely incorrect when she thinks that Judai may turn out to be helpful at all. He spends minute after minute trying to solve projectile motion problems by hand and pen; the same thing Yusei can do in seconds and teach it to her properly, too. Judai tries to teach himself, first, and then he tells her some random story that is interesting, but completely off-topic and in no way useful or relevant to her current position in life.<p>

More than once, Judai thinks he's figured it out, but as he tries to explain it to a hopeful Luna, he trips over his own words and deems himself incorrect, shakes his head, and tires again. Poor Leo falls asleep in the corner (coding, Judai admits, he's crap at, and there's no avoiding it). Luna keeps up her smile, but it's implied and known and basically acknowledged that they'll accomplish absolutely nothing.

It's just... she doesn't want to upset him.

Eventually, there's no avoiding it.

"I'm sorry," Judai admits. "You're not benefiting from this at all, are you?"

Luna frowns and shakes her head. "I'm sorry, Ju-nii. I get a little bit of what you're saying, but most of it is lost to me." She looks down at the paper in Judai's hands for emphasis; it's designed with a bunch of doodles, like someone tossing Winged Kuriboh off a cliff, and Leo trying to catch it and failing terribly, and there's a cat on top of everything for no apparent reason. There's also some of Judai's notes, but they aren't legible and it hurts Luna's head to try and understand the numbers, let alone the terms he's scrawled.

Judai sighs. "Yusei'll be home soon," he admits. "I don't know if you want to wait for him, or..."

Luna bites her lip and looks at her brother, cuddled up with a couch pillow. "It's getting late. We'd better go home."

"Oh," says Judai. "Okay."

Luna gives him another smile and prods her brother awake. Leo stirs and shakes himself and proclaims, "WHOA WHAT NO I WASN'T SLEEPING I SUMMON POWER TOOL DRAGON!" Luna shakes her head and rolls her eyes and drags her brother to the door.

"Wait," argues Leo as he comes to his senses, "We're leaving already? I didn't even get to duel Judai-niisan! Or get taught by him!"

Judai laughs and brings a hand to the back of his neck, puts the other in one of his pockets. "Don't worry, Leo. You didn't miss anything. Come around next time and we'll duel or play a game, alright?"

Leo pouts and crosses his arms, but he notices the time and Judai's mood and nods. "Fiiiiine."

With that, the twins leave with enthusiastic goodbyes and hand waves, and it's refreshing to see two children so excited to see him and still not fanboy-obsessed (well, Leo, anyway). Judai watches Kuribon and Winged Kuriboh give each other silly spirit hugs, and Kuribon, too, whizzes off in the direction of Luna (Judai holds the door open for her with a chuckle). Judai shuts the door and it's too late to go for that walk now and across the world, Johan's probably asleep, so Judai'll wake and disturb him if he calls now, and he doesn't want to do that because the worse Johan does the later he'll come home. Moody and weird, Judai slumps into the couch and closes his eyes, thinks maybe he'll take a nap before Atem and Yugi and Yusei show up, because even Judai needs quiet sometimes.

And that's when there's a knock at the door.

Judai furrows his brow. "It's open," he says, loud enough for whoever's there to hear.

The door creaks open, and a small, female voice, speaks, "Um... Judai-niisan..."

Judai looks back from his position on the couch. It's Luna, rocking around on her feet, playing with her fingers and not meeting his eyes because her hands are so interesting. "Umm, Ju-nii, I was just wondering... could you, maybe, help me with Newton's Third Law? I don't really understand it properly, and I didn't want to admit it in front of Leo. So..."

Judai grins. That, at least, is something he remembers. Practically leaping to his feet, he declares, "Of course!," and pulls out his deck to Luna's surprise. For this, Judai's prepared - it's one of those simple things that he actually understands, and so explaining is simple, really.

"Okay! Newton's Third Law is that for every action, there's an opposite but equal reaction, right?" He looks at Luna for confirmation, before he screws up again. She nods. "Okay! So, say you have Burstlady" - Judai nods at his deck, and to Luna's surprise the Duel Monster Judai describes appears next to him, ready for an order - "and Featherman." The other spirit follows suit, presents himself to Luna with a nod. Judai nods once at his companions, then goes on, "Okay, now, if Burstlady and Featherman are pushing at other" - he motions to his monsters to do so, and they hold out their hands, palms to palms, and wrestle a little - "and Featherman pushes Burstlady, then Burstlady responds with equal force. Right?"

Luna nods, and watches the spirits with the most interested of eyes. It's these kinds of things about Judai that entice her; it's amazing, to see someone just as connected to spirits as her, and more.

"That's one thing. Now... okay, I don't even know if that's really what you need to know, so, um..." Judai hesitates, looks around for something else to use as an example. "Ah!" Without his verbal command, Winged Kuriboh appears beside Judai and nods at a command, and suddenly he appears behind Kuribon, and pulls at her bow. Kuribon struggles against Winged Kuriboh's pull, and finally, Winged Kuriboh lets go and Kuribon nearly topples over.

Judai laughs. "You see?"

Luna nods excitedly. "Yes! I understand! Thank you, Ju-nii!" Her eyes fall on the clock again and she blinks. "Oh, I better get back to Leo. Bye! And thanks again!" And with that, she runs off.

Winged Kuriboh floats down and nuzzles Judai's face, brings about one of those true smiles that doesn't see through a young girl's attempt to get a young man to smile.


	14. Achoo!

**achoo! ; **Judai's always been rather sickly, hasn't he?

* * *

><p><em>achoo!<em>

* * *

><p>"Achoo!"<p>

"Bless you."

"Achoo!"

"Someone's thinking about you quite a bit, huh?"

"Achoo!"

"You're sneezing into your arm, right?"

"Achoo!"

It's amazing how often Judai gets sick. He more-or-less spends the entirety of winter in some state of illness – a stuffy nose, a bad cough, an awful seasonal headache. Their stash of Robitusson and cough drops and ibuprofen withers quickly as the cold creeps in, and Judai's the main culprit. Atem and Yugi only get sick once in a while, and it's rarer for Yusei to get sick than it is for Judai to synchro summon. But blame it on school, blame it on his recklessness, or blame it on his childhood – Judai's immune system is generally left not taken care of, and it puts the entire apartment on edge for fear of catching the bug.

Yusei and Yugi are generally concerned for Judai's health, but Atem is never as helpful. He sourly places the blame on Judai and Judai alone; Judai, who takes none of the shots he's supposed to take, goes outside without a jacket when it's ten below freezing, and doesn't always wash his hands before and after dinner.

"And," Atem declares presently, "He lived at the Germ Exchange Kaiba calls a school for three years—it's probably part of that snivy bastard's plot to get all of us permanently sick and unfit to duel, so he can take over the world."

"You're being silly," Yugi says from beside Judai, feeling distinctly like he's the wife to Atem's husband and the mother to Judai's son (Yusei can be the older brother and Bingo'll be the family pet that plays 'go fetch my leather coat' whenever Atem so much as looks at him, and they can get a sitcom or something). He feels Judai's forehead and immediately withdraws his hand, _tsk_ing and shaking his head. "And you're getting worse."

Judai tries to laugh sheepishly, but what comes out is a harsh cough that clearly resonates from deep in his throat; he moans when the fits over and pulls up the covers to his ears, whines through his stuffed nose, "But I have a date tonight!"

"Judai, have you ever considered investing in a coat?" asks Yusei, sighing from his spot leaning against the doorframe. He thinks for a moment, and the hum of fridge increases in volume as if to prod him on: "Or a healthier diet?" He gazes pointedly at the waste basket tucked away in the corner, full of empty potato chip bags and soda cans that Judai'd snuck past Atem.

"Nooo," says the lump under the blanket miserably, and coughs once, twice, before moaning again. "Dammit."

"You brought this upon yourself!" calls Atem from down the hall.

They ignore him.

Yugi sighs and hoists himself up from Judai's bedside. "You really do need to take better care of yourself, though," he speaks gently. "Not only because it makes Atem grumpy, but for yourself. Jii-chan's always told me that weakness now can only amplify when you're older."

"Yeah, yeah," mutters Judai. Winged Kuriboh appears next to him and speaks something excitedly; both Yugi and Yusei can see the spirit, but they can't understand him, so Yugi shrugs and leaves, turning up the heat and announcing that Judai knows how to reach him should he need anything. Yusei's just about to leave when Judai shifts a bit, and the top of his head peaks out from under the covers so Yusei can see his pleading brown eyes.

"Planetary particle~!"

Yusei winces at the nickname, but removes himself from the door and walks into the room properly. "Yes?"

Judai coughs, and Yusei's pretty sure this one's not all that real, because Winged Kuriboh's innocent smile isn't very convincing. "Won't you keep me company in my illness?"

Yusei raises an eyebrow. "And catch your demon sick streak?"

"Oh, come on," insists Judai, his voice muffled under the blankets, "you have an immune system of steel." He closes his eyes tightly and brings a hand to his nose, pressuring it in hopes that his headache will relax. It doesn't, and he knows that means that he's probably not about to fall asleep anytime soon, and even if he does it'll be one of those feverish sleeps with dreams that aren't dreams spread between reality that isn't reality.

Judai looks to Winged Kuriboh; the spirit does what Yusei assumes is its equivalent of a shrug and disappears.

"Pleeeeease?" pesters Judai. "You don't know how _boring_ being sick is." A pause, and he adds, sincerely, "I promise I won't get you sick. On Winged Kuriboh!"

An angry _KURI!_ fills the room. Judai and Yusei ignore it, Yusei shrugs, and figures it can't be that bad. The poor kid deserves a break, after all, right?

* * *

><p>"Achoo!"<p>

"Yusei has a really cute sneeze."

"Achoo!"

"…Bless you."

"Achoo!"

"KURI KURI KURI _KURI._"

"Achoo!"

"…On the bright side, I feel great, guys! I'm going to go out and grab some lunch, so… _ohmygod_—_Atemwhatareyou—_wah!"


	15. Lady Luck

**Notes: **Someone asked if/when Yuma's going to be joining the gang. Answer, for now, is no – Yuma's going through his own adventure right now. I address quite a few of the details relating to Elysium in a link you can find on my profile.

**lady luck ; **Because choosing which pack is always one of the hardest decisions I make when I get new cards.

* * *

><p><em>lady luck<em>

* * *

><p>The elevator's broken and the trip up the stairs is long and not too welcome after a long day at classes, but halfway up the second flight of stairs Yugi remembers what's so special about today and he smiles, his fatigue numbed but not forgotten. He rushes up the rest of the stairs excitedly, with the same rush of childish anticipation he'd had when he opened his first booster pack, and he fumbles with the keys outside the door for a few seconds before realizing the door's not even locked. Chastising himself for getting so laughably excited, Yugi opens the door, enters a world somewhere between a hobby shop and a junkyard, and immediately forgives himself for acting childish.<p>

Their black leather sofas are pushed against the walls, the pillows randomly thrown at them in lieu of on them. There are five tall, wide cardboard boxes hastily opened and thrown around the room at odd places, the packing tape still half on, and there's a knife on the coffee table (which has been moved against the wall, too) with some tape still stuck to it. On the carpet next to the coffee table, spread about in a hollow circle, is a massive pile of booster packs, at least a million and five little packets with _Number 17: Leviathan Dragon _glaring up at the boy at the epicenter of it all; one—who else?—Yuki Judai.

He looks like he's meditating as he stares thoughtfully at all of the packets and makes sounds that are probably supposed to indicate deep spiritual thinking. Standing to the side in equal contemplation are Atem and Yusei, scanning each and every pack so intensely that one might think that they can see through them. The atmosphere is one to be cut through with a knife, but Yugi's not unfamiliar with it, was even expecting it, so he shuffles into the room unsurprised, hangs up his keys, and quietly shuts the door. Even that, however, produces a sound loud enough to stir the trio from their stupor.

"Evening," says Yusei in form of greeting, and then states the obvious, something typically uncharacteristic of him: "They came."

"I can see that," says Yugi, eyeing the pile of booster packs pointedly, and then his glance moves to Judai. "But he hasn't made his choices yet?"

Yusei shakes his head. "Not a chance."

"Of course."

It's something they established years ago, back when it was just Yugi and Atem and Judai. Before, when new card packs came out, the protagonists didn't get any of them at all unless they paid out of their pockets. Judai was greatly insulted by this; he insisted that him simply _holding _one of those cards once increased its value tenfold, and that "you _know _the fangirls wet themselves when I held Bite Shoes for two minutes." The company had to begrudgingly agree; protagonist's using a card increased its notoriety and demand, and since then the company started shipping them boxes full of booster packs, and they're allowed to pick seven each.

Then there was the problem that one time, Judai ended up wanting the same pack that had caught Atem's attention. Yugi ended up opening it in the end, and when both an Ultra Rare and a Secret Rare came out, they realized they had to come up with some way to decide the order in which they got to pick packs. Of course, settlement in their household always ends up with Duel Monsters, so the rule eventually became that they'd hold a tournament whenever a shipment was expected, and whoever won got to pick the first ten packs, and so on. Happily, this seemed to work, and even after Yusei's arrival, they kept at it.

The problem?

Yusei and Atem and Yugi are fairly quick about picking packs. Judai isn't.

"He's been at it for _three hours_," Atem, who lost this particular tournament, mutters angrily, crossing his arms. He's not looking up when Yugi turns to meet his gaze; rather, his eyes are trailing a pack hiding near Judai's left knee, as though it might escape if he turns away from it for even a second.

"If you guys would stop _complaining_," Judai speaks, "I'd be done a lot quicker."

"No, you wouldn't," snaps Atem.

Judai ignores him. He picks up two packs and weighs them contemplatively, shows them to someone over his shoulder and seems to have a brief conversation with Yubel (who for today seems to have chosen to be seen only by her soulmate). He nods once, clears his throat, and announces, "I think I've made my choices."

"You think?" asks Atem, as though the concept of Judai using his brain is completely foreign to him.

"Other me," Yugi reprimands him gently as Judai makes his choices and moves to the sofa to open them, and Yusei takes his place in the center of the circle.

"I hope you get ten Crashbugs," says Atem as Judai tears open the first pack.

Yugi whistles as the first card comes out.

"I'm sorry," Judai cackles, "I can't hear you over my Nova Master."


	16. Spoofery

**spoofery **; part 1 on the subject of _Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series_, LittleKuriboh's contribution to the fandom. In this verse, I've more or less made it into a sort of SNL, where LK is well known for doing DM, ShadyVox for GX and other projects, etc. I assume it's more than an abridging of just YGO; there's more anime and movies and all that, but our heroes are a little self-centered. That said, I have nothing against any of the people and the way they're presented are, obviously, completely fictional. I address the existence of abridged and a bunch of other stuff in Elysium on the link you can find in my profile.

* * *

><p><em>spoofery<em>

* * *

><p>They're only told about the Bonds Beyond Time sketch the week it's supposed to air, by ShadyVox himself; but only because Judai met him at an interview and they exchanged autographs. Shady was surprised that Judai and the others weren't told about the trailer the Abridged Company had aired last week, but Judai just shrugged and thanked him, didn't explain the company's estranged relationship with TAC.<p>

Upon returning to the Saltwater Cave, Judai hops onto the couch and steals part of Yusei's sandwich, drinks some of Yusei's soda (soda ban? what soda ban?) and speaks cheerily, "Guess what~!"

Yusei, who's always unsure what to think when Judai's so upbeat, glares at Judai's bite on his sandwich and snatches back his soda for a slurp. "What?"

Judai grins like he's just won a prize. "Five minutes to get rid of it!"

As is common with a lot of the things Judai says, Yusei's just confused. "...What?"

"Exactly," says Judai, and with a definitive air, he takes possession of the TV remote and switches the channel from what Yusei was watching (something about motorcycles, probably, or maybe a rerun of Bruno's new show) to one of the common cable networks. It's not often that they watch standard channels; usually, their television is turned to either the auxiliary or a specialty network, except for in the case of some emergency or, lately, when ZEXAL's airing.

"I was kind of watching something," Yusei says, attempting to take the remote back from Judai's grasp.

Judai keeps the coveted object out of Yusei's reach, and turns to explain, "But TAC is on tonight."

"Right," says Yusei, reaching over Judai's lap to retrieve the remote, "And since when have we been regular TAC viewers?"

It's a good question; the relationship Yusei and Judai share with TAC is less severe than the relationship Atem shares with it, but it's still a little shaky. It'll make them laugh, of course, but there's something about having a constant run of a parody that strikes a bad chord occasionally. Yusei's had more than enough of certain jokes about his privates, for example, and though he tries to hide it from the others, Judai's not all that comfortable with constantly being the butt to constant jokes. Is that the price he gets for trying to be happy despite all that he's been through?

Presently, however, Judai looks to his left, looks to his right, and then deciding that there's nothing to be afraid of, leans in close to Yusei's ear and whispers, "They're doing Bonds Beyond Time tonight!"

Which... Yusei has to admit is a little tempting to watch, even for someone who isn't an avid viewer of the regular season.

"Alright," he says, "I'll watch."

* * *

><p>Yugi comes home from his classes halfway through the episode's run, and he's excited when he finds out what it is they're watching. Judai and Yusei pause and rewind it for him, retrieve some snacks and think that maybe they should record it, too, if Atem ever feels like watching the spoof. Once they're resettled the three of them take their seats and watch, and they have good laughs, enjoying the parody more than they usually do. It's a good feeling; along with the silly jokes that are cracked at the strangeness of their movie's plot, there are also some jokes that are about the production that people outside the industry probably wouldn't even get. All in all, once it's finished, Yusei and Yugi deem it one of TAC's better productions.<p>

Judai, however, is strangely quiet afterwards.

Yugi's concerned. "Judai? What's up?"

Judai shakes his head. "Ah... it's nothing," he says, avoiding eye contact. He's got a card out in his hand and he's looking at it intently; Yusei shifts back and sees that it's Yubel, who is very real and very dear and someone who shares with Judai a story and a darkness.

"You sure?" asks Yugi, looking to Yusei for an answer. Yusei's about to speak before Judai's composure and loudness is regained, and it's so forced and so excited that Yugi nearly jumps.

"Yeah!" Judai says suddenly, awkwardly upbeat, "I'm fine. I just, um, remembered I have to call Johan, so..." He stands up, pockets his card, and turns to face the other two. "I'll just be in my room if you need me." And with that he leaves them, walks down the hallway and unintentionally shuts the door so loud that Yusei's drink on the coffee table shakes.

Yusei and Yugi share a _look_, and Yugi bites his lips, and Yusei brings his hands to his face and there's a long, unanimous sigh.


	17. Home for the Holidays

**home for the holidays** ; Judai, Atem, and a snowstorm. Sigh.

* * *

><p><em>home for the holidays<em>

* * *

><p>Yusei leaves one hour before Judai's supposed to set out, and Yugi goes to Anzu's straight after his finals are over, so when it starts snowing fast and hard on Christmas Eve, Atem and Judai—both of whom have plans to go somewhere—are the two unfortunate souls stranded in their apartment. It isn't <em>too <em>bad in that they still have power (unlike some of the people across the street), but it's still a little annoying, because they'd been planning this weekend out for more than a month now, and there were plans and ideas and laughter at what could and would happen. Judai, who hadn't contacted his parents in years now, was invited to Asuka's for the day (and last he heard, Manjoume, Johan, Shou, and Kaiser were already there!) and Atem was about to head out after Yugi and Anzu had been given some time to themselves. He's got everyone special presents and everything, and the anxiousness that comes with people opening presents and deciding how much they're appreciated sits noisily in his mind—he _knows _his presents are the best, and it's not _fair _that he won't be able to participate in the anticipated competition.

It leaves the both of them bitter and angry and Judai's near ready to tear a hole in the space-time continuum, hop into another dimension, and jump back into their own dimension through Asuka's bathroom.

But presently they're both hunched over on the couch, watching reruns of some Christmas special that neither is paying attention to, with hot chocolate in their hands and a game of Candyland on the table. They probably look out the window at the same time, because there's a collective—

_Sigh…_

—as the snow thickens.

"This sucks."

It's hard to get angry at the snow; there's a magic imprinted in the white stuff itself that makes a face light up, and it's especially exciting because it's always so anticipated. But they always forget how much of a menace snow can be; as Atem wordlessly moves his character into Gum Drop Mountain, he eyes the laptop on the table next to them and watches the weather report, where a marquee's obnoxiously flashing about a weather emergency that they were probably warned about a week ago and promptly ignored. Atem sighs and motions to Judai that it's his turn; the younger man sighs, too, and takes a card from the stack, moving up two purple spaces.

"Your turn."

Atem takes the stack of cue cards and throws them across the room.

"Oh. Well. There goes that."

They can't be bothered to pick it up; bummed out, Judai puts the materials that are left on the table back into the game's box and sets it on the floor, less gently than he probably should have. That done, he sinks into the couch, kicks off his shoes, and props his feet (peppermint colored socks included) up on the coffee table.

Atem glares at them. With the whitest, hottest intensity that he can muster, as though staring at them long enough will make them spontaneously combust, will make Judai cease to exist, will make the snow outside melt into a flood, slam into the apartment, and carry him all the way to Yugi and Anzu and whoever managed to make it through the storm to the Christmas Eve party.

Judai doesn't notice Atem's glare; he pulls out his phone and aimlessly drags the screen, plays a stupid game for a few seconds, checks status updates of his friends. Asuka's put up a bulletin that the party's still on, as most of the people have managed to make it. Judai texted her an hour ago about how he'd be late, but he definitely planned on making it.

So much for that.

_Sigh_.

Atem's still glaring at Judai's socks—they're _mocking_ him.

After some time of quiet glaring and aimless phone fidgeting and the TV's hopeless playing, their stupor and indignation is interrupted by Judai's phone going off, and it's not a text message or a game sound or an email. Judai nearly drops the thing his ringer is so loud, so unexpected; but he manages to avoid breaking the device and he moves his feet off the table (Atem finally relaxes and returns to his now cold hot chocolate) and speaks into the phone, "Hey, Yusei."

Yusei's the wise guy—quite literally—who actually checked the weather before leaving for his evening's activities (Team 5D's annual Christmas party at Jack's place). Atem resentfully wonders if Yusei's called to remind them that they're morons.

"Hey, you make it to Asuka's in one piece?" Yusei asks, concernedly, and it's nice of him to ask and it's cute that he's unawares that Judai didn't even make it out the door, thanks.

"No," answers Judai, "I'm still at home."

"What?" Yusei knows that Judai's bad with planning weather-based missions and leaving on time for things, but it still takes a moment to register.

"Yup. Atem and I decided that since you and Yugi left, we could seize the opportunity to begin our secret love affair, so we're staying in the apartment _all alone_ in the middle of a snowstorm and warming each other up."

Atem jerks violently in Judai's direction and he looks like he's about to strangle the kid, but he closes his eyes and breathes and looks at the snow and nearly screams and then, somehow, miraculously, he restrains himself. Judai glances at him through his peripheral vision, deems the situation unsafe, and gets off the couch to stare pointlessly out the window at the snow piling on the sidewalk below them.

"…Are you high?" asks Yusei, because he doesn't think there's really much else to ask.

"On life," quips Judai, uncharacteristically deadpan. The movie they're sort-of-not-really watching on TV is interrupted for a brief weather report; the man barely gets out 'expected power outages throughout the city—' before the lights unceremoniously shut down around them and they're shrouded in darkness.

Atem stares at his hands, stares at Judai's empty cup of hot chocolate, stares at the scattered Candyland cards all over the floor, and goes into the kitchen to get them both the rest of the hot chocolate before it freezes.

_Sigh_.


	18. Ninety Nine Percent

**kyuujuukyuu paasento **; gotta catch 'em all.

* * *

><p><em>ninety-nine percent<em>

* * *

><p>"Come <em>on,<em>" Judai says, pouting, and it's in that tone of voice encoded in the base of Yusei's brain, that whiny, nasally thing that Judai expressly makes as annoying as possible, "_Please_, Yusei?"

Yusei rolls out from under the motorcycle, covered in grease and grime and holding a wrench in one hand, and there are customers watching him with disappointment, tapping their feet and glancing at their watches, wondering how long it'll take him to fix up their D-Wheels and if he'll take long enough for them to get a discount. He gives Judai that _look_, but it slides right over and lands on the floor somewhere by Johan, who's accompanied Judai on his unceremonious and unwelcome visit to Yusei's garage. Sighing, Yusei shakes his head and checks the laptop by his feet for the details on the vehicle he's working on.

"...Judai," Yusei tries, and fails, because Judai's, _"__Yu~sei_!" is out before Yusei's "No" is finished.

"You realize I _cheated_, right?" Yusei points out carefully, scribbling some notes down on the palm of his hand, and preparing to go back under. "Back in Satellite, we didn't have all those events to get our legendaries. I hacked the game."

"He's right, you know. Won't count," Johan advises sagely, from his seat in the customer's waiting area, where he's squinting at the screen of his DS and is apparently locked in an intense battle. Judai takes the time to send a glare in Johan's direction, but quickly turns back to Yusei and schools his expression back to puppy-dog-eyes-please-please-please-Yusei-don't-you-see-how-verbally-abusive-my-boyfriend-is?

"Yes, it totally does! How else am I supposed to get Celebi?"

"Try Atem," Yusei suggests, knowing full well that recently Atem had managed to delete most of Yugi's data on _Pokémon White_.

"Hah-hah," mutters Judai. "You're so helpful."

"Maybe you should've thought about this _before_ you insinuated a Pokémon competition with your boyfriend."

Johan snickers. Judai huffs and stalks away, but not before informing Yusei that he'll be back in an hour or so to bug the piss out of him. That's fine with Yusei; it's his lunch break, so he won't be holding up customers that time. Judai and Johan grab their things and leave through the back exit, and Yusei's just settling into the comfort of a Judai-less environment when the back door slams open and all of Yusei's clients groan collectively.

"We could trade!" Judai exclaims. "I swear, I'll give them back right after I win!"

Yusei tosses a dirty towel at Judai's head.


	19. Tradition

**Notes: **Elysium was always intended to be short and simple, anyway. It only goes on so long as I'm having fun with it. ;)

**tradition **; another chapter that I'm working on a follow up for, but not promises, because we all know how that's turned out in the past.

* * *

><p><em>tradition<em>

* * *

><p>When April comes around, Atem marvels at the thought that Yusei's been living with them for a whole year now, and Yusei chuckles because, yeah, that's true, time does fly, doesn't it? Judai's reaction to the revelation is, however, on the more dramatic side of the scale: upon overhearing the chat from the couch, Judai jumps in the room down the hall and zips to Atem and Yusei, dripping wet with nothing to cover him but a towel around his legs, and he screeches, "<em>Whaaat<em>?"

"Yusei's been here for a year now," Atem repeats carefully, eyeing Judai's towel. "...Do you mind?"

Judai rolls his eyes and goes to retrieve some pants—only his pants, though, because _honestly_, Atem—and then he hops onto the couch between Yusei and Atem, creeps closer to the former, and he's still soaking wet when he tilts his head and confirms, slowly, "You've been here for a _whole _year?"

Yusei doesn't answer immediately, opting instead to nudge Judai out of the way, where he won't obstruct Yusei's view of the TV, because ZEXAL is on, and Yusei's the only one of their foursome that's actually caught up with it, so he makes it a habit of watching it live (or recording it, and catching it at the earliest opportunity). Judai shrugs and settles in between them, stealing some of Atem's popcorn and some of Yusei's drink in the process. Atem spares him a minute glare before he sighs and they return to the program, where Yuma's in the middle of a drastic situation and in desperate need of a good draw; before they know it, the three of them are on the edge of their seats and watching the screen intently.

"Come on," mutters Atem under his breath, and Yusei and Judai hush him with harsh whispers, and Yuma's just about draw, when—

_—Morning Rescue_. Damn.

"Well, I hope _morning rescue_ saves Astral," Atem mutters darkly, and he stands solemnly, carries the popcorn bowl away with him to the kitchen, where seconds later the microwave's turned on and a new bag is promptly popped. Judai snickers at Atem's passive aggression and turns to Yusei, who's apparently been liveblogging the episode with the rest of Team 5D's. If they're all avid watchers, Judai's not surprised; he remembers when 5D's came out, and he'd spend nights camping out with Johan or Sho (or both) in front of the TV and trying their best not to be blown away by the camera quality.

Yusei finishes up a text and turns to Judai. "He's right, by the way," he answers, finally, and Judai has to think back to remember what the question even was. "The anniversary was yesterday, and we're watching the 49th of ZEXAL right now. The kid's been at it for a whole year."

Judai's eyes widen in surprise, but just as he's about to speak he's interrupted by the arrival of Atem and the bowl of the popcorn and the show's return, so he settles for attacking the popcorn and saves the conversation for later. The episode is incredible and charges Judai up, sets him in the mood for a good, strong, duel, but even more so it makes him curious about Yuma_—_unlike Yusei, who met Yuma on set the first day of the show's filming (as is tradition: Judai did the same for Yusei, and Yugi the same for Judai), and Atem and Yugi who made his acquaintance properly on other occasions, Judai's yet to see Yuma in person, though the stories he's heard and the spirit he's seen speak volumes.

"Okay," says Judai matter-of-factly once the preview for next week's episode has gone by and Atem's done not-crying at the return of Astral, "we have to throw these guys a party."

"Hmm?"

"We _have _to," Judai insists, and he looks pointedly at Yusei, pokes him on the shoulder. "We did one for you!"

It's true. Three years ago, Atem threw Yusei a congratulatory party for surviving the first year of stardom, and back when the apartment had been home for merely two, Yugi'd done the same for Judai. It, like many other things among the four of them, had become tradition: like their booster pack tournaments, like the races down to the pool on excruciatingly hot days in the summer, like the late night marathons of _Cardfight! Vanguard_ when all of them happened to be home at the same time and free the next day.

"I suppose you're right," Atem says, nodding, and there's a smile playing at his lips, because, yeah, okay, he'll admit it: "I'm getting rather fond of Yuma, to be honest."

Judai grins. "Well then, we better throw him the pop flyingest party he'll ever see."

Appropriately, Cat Bingo chooses that moment to appear and climb into Yusei's lap.


End file.
